Pulse
by TStabler
Summary: Noun: A constant throbbing ache. Noun: The underlying feelings, emotions or sentiments of a person. Tonight, Olivia Benson unloads one because of the other, and they're both caused by Elliot. How will he react? E/O chapter one is a bit angsty!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Had this written for a while, decided to post it. Different than my usual, and I'd like some response. I had a great birthday, thanks for the wishes! Mildly AU as Elliot's separated from Kathy (with the papers signed on **_**his**_** end), there is no Eli, and it takes place in year **_**five**_** of their partnership.**

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and its characters. Storyline, dialogue, narrative and originality belong to TStabler©**

The precinct was empty and quiet, except for the drip of the coffee pot and the pulse pounding in Olivia's ears. Munch and Fin were sleeping in the cribs, Cragen was out in the field with a few uniforms, following the only promising lead they had in twelve hours. Elliot and Olivia were at their joined desks, taking calls, which were now coming few and far between, and reading the messages that had been taken since the sketch of the suspect had been released.

The pounding in her head got worse by the minute. It didn't help that her partner wouldn't shut the fuck up. She had stopped listening twenty minutes ago and now all she heard was, "Blah, blah, blah, rape kit. Blah, blah, blah, murder weapon." His voice was really starting to sound grating and she wanted nothing more than to slap the shit out of him. She had her head in her hands, rubbing her temples, and she was glaring at him _so _hard, trying to make his head _explode_ with her mind.

"Elliot!"

He stopped talking and looked up at her. "Yeah?"

There was a moment of silence. "Do you hear that?" She narrowed her eyes and flattened her smile.

He listened, intently. "No, Liv, I don't hear anything. It's quiet."

"Exactly," she snapped. "Keep it that way." She squeezed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, and her eyes slid shut.

Elliot dropped the file he'd been reading and got out of his seat. He turned out the bright overhead lights, leaving the desk lamp on, then ran to the side of the room, poured her a cup of strong coffee, and walked it back to her, digging two white pills out of his pocket and handing them to her as well. "Here," he said softly.

"Huh?" she opened one eye, and tried to smirk, but her face was not playing nice today. It looked more like a bitter scowl.

He knelt down next to her. "I didn't know you had headache," he said, whisper-quiet. He put the aspirin into her hand, put the cup down on her desk, and took her head in his hands. He rubbed her temples, slowly, gently, and as_ good_ as it felt, _this_ was the reason she_ had_ the damn headache in the first place. He swiped his thumbs over her forehead, applying slight pressure over her eyebrows, and said, softly, "Go up to the cribs. Take a nap. Sleep it off."

She looked him in the eyes, popped the pills into her mouth, chugged the coffee and threw her head back, swallowing the painkillers. "No," she said. "I'm good."

Elliot sighed and pushed himself up. "Okay," he said. "I just wanted to take care of you." He ran his head over her head, as if petting her.

"That's the problem," she said under her breath.

He turned back to her. "What was that?"

"Nothing." She squinted her yes and tried to read the suspect-sighting report, one of about seventy, on her desk.

"Liv, what is going _on_ with you, huh? You have been snappy and irritable and, don't hit me, _bitchy_ for the last week. Did I _do_ something?" He looked at her with sad, worried eyes.

"El, we have a serial rapist-slash-killer out there and _five-hundred_ of these stupid, white papers to read, can we talk about this _later_?" She flipped the report over into the "useless shit" pile and picked up another one.

Elliot ripped it out of her hand and forced her to look at him. "No, we _can't_. I've lost my wife, not that I mind, and _probably_ my kids, Liv. I'm _not_ losing the _only_ person that means anything to me, too. Not if I can _help_ it. Just tell me what I _did_!"

Olivia was taken aback, and she melted when she heard the words fly out of his mouth. "El, what? Losing...you're not losing me, I just..._only_ person?"

"You just _what_, Liv?" Elliot had _tears _in his eyes. Olivia had never seen him cry. Ever. He was on the brink of divorce, on the verge of possibly being a _part-time_ daddy, and he hadn't shed a _single_ tear. This was _painful_ for her to watch.

"What exactly _do_ I mean to you?" she asked quietly, turning away from him, the throbbing in her heart now matching the one in her head.

Elliot balked. "I don't know how to answer that," he said.

"Am I your partner, your friend, your _best_ friend, _all_ of the above, _none _of the above or _what_?" It came out scared, nervous, and a little harsh.

"Liv, what are you..._where_ is this coming from?" He took a step closer, his heart in his throat, and he loosened his tie. "_All_ of the above. _And_ you _forgot _something."

Olivia grabbed the sides of her head, it suddenly felt like someone had her skull in a vice. "Oh, fuck, this hurts."

Elliot ran to her and just as he grazed her shoulder she jumped away. "Please, _don't_ touch me. You have _no idea_ what you do to me when you _touch_ me."

"Liv, we're talking in circles here." He threw his hands up and shrugged.

"Well, I'm _thinking_ in circles, Elliot." She turned around to face him, she caught sight of those eyes of his and her breath hitched. She spoke calmly, but her heart was a speeding train. "I had it all under _control _for so long. To the point where I could ignore it, suppress it, _kill_ it, ya know? And then a month ago you come into work and it's 'Hey, Liv. Kathy left me.' and my brain thinks it's _finally_ _allowed_ to think the things that it's _not allowed_ to think and my heart fucking _grows wings_." She rubbed her forehead and let out a nervous laugh. "Do you know what it's _like_ arguing with yourself in the middle of the night about what you're feeling? _Convincing_ yourself to _not_ feel it? Realizing you've _been_ feeling it for _so long_, you've _gotten used_ to it?"

Elliot's eyes widened. "You're saying..."

"And then, since_ she's_ been _out_ of the picture, _every _time you _looked_ at me, every time our hands accidentally touched when you handed me a file or a cup of coffee, every time you _spoke_ I wanted to bat my eyes and _giggle_! I _don't_ giggle! I couldn't _stand _it, El! The way you drove me crazy started to _piss me off_. You made me such a..._girl_. Then, _every little thing_ you did turned me on so much it got on my goddamn _nerves_, so, for the past week, I tried to push you _away_ just to make the _pain _stop, but it only got _worse._" She shrugged lightly and wrapped her arms around herself, biting her lip. "Jesus, I'm wound up _tighter _than a fucking two-dollar watch, and I have had a _killer_ headache for three goddamn _days_, since you _signed_ your divorce papers, because I can't _convince_ my stupid subconscious that you and I are _never _gonna_ happen_!" Olivia had said that last part to the coffee pot, because she couldn't face him, and when she was finished the pain in her head was astonishing. "Shit," she muttered, fumbling to her desk and collapsing into her chair. "Do you know_ why_ I'm constantly canceling dates and breaking up with boyfriends?"

"Well, uh," he licked his lips, processing her previous, slow ramble. "I think it's the same reason _I'm_ getting a _divorce_," he said, meaning it deeply, trying to tell her he loved her, too. He, however, was a big _chicken_. "Certain people just can't handle what we do for a living, and you and I chose _the job_ over _them_."

"I didn't choose _the job_ over them, Elliot," she said as she struggled to her feet and grabbed her jacket. "I chose _you_ over them." She looked at him, saw the dumbfounded expression on his face, shook her head in pity and laughed in sorrow. "I shouldn't have told you that," she said, and she stormed off toward the bullpen doors.

"Liv!" Elliot yelled, but she was already gone. He ran out after her, catching her before she got into the elevator. "Liv," he said and he grabbed her arm, spinning her around. "You can't say all of that and just walk away."

"Walking away is the only thing I _can_ do, El," she said, the tears from her painful headache and heartache finally spilling over. "On top of being _incredibly _embarrassed right now, I don't really want to hear you tell me to stop acting like a _teenager _with a _crush_ and get over it, El. I'm _trying _to get over it. I've _been_ trying to get over it for four and half _years_. I know I _can't_ feel like this, but you make it _really_ hard not to _love _you," Olivia said as her eyes squinted shut. She turned around and, instead of waiting for the elevator, which would only prolong her agony, she pushed open the door to the stairwell and, despite her pounding headache, ran like the wind.

It took Elliot a few seconds to get over the initial shock of hearing her say she loved him, but once it sunk in, a slow smile spread across his face. When he realized she was getting away, though, the smile turned into a wide-eyed, panicked expression and he bolted down the stairs after her, praying he would be able to tell her how he felt and bring her back, happy and pain-free, before Munch and Fin woke up.

**A/N: Part two? Yes? Reviews please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Pulse2: synonymous with **_**heartbeat**_**, which stops when one is shocked or stunned, restarts when one relaxes again, and speeds up when one is nervous, anxious, scared or excited. Observe. **

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and its characters. Storyline, dialogue, narrative and originality belong to TStabler©**

He ran down three flights of stairs before he saw her, crumpled, sitting at the bottom, her head in her hands. He slowed his pace, catching his breath, and sat beside her. He instinctively looped his hands back around her, caressing her temples, applying just enough pressure to soothe. She moaned, against her will and her better judgment. Still trying to breathe normally, he panted as he said, "You ran, Liv. You ran before I could tell you that..." he paused, took a deep breath, and turned her head toward him. "I know _exactly_ what it's like to argue with myself in the middle of the night about my feelings. I am an _expert_ on feeling things that shouldn't be felt. I was married and in love with another woman for four and a half, no I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say five, _five_ years. That's pretty high up on the list of 'bad feelings'," he said with a chuckle, staring into Olivia's eyes, still rubbing her temples. "Every time _you _look at me, every time we touch, accidentally or not, every time _you _speak, you drive me _wild_, Liv. _You_ turn _me _on just by waking up in the morning. Knowing that you're walking around, breathing the same air as me is enough to make me want you. Do you know why I didn't stop Kathy when she walked out?

"You chose the job," Olivia mumbled. "You said so."

"Yeah, I lied. She gave me a _choice_, she told me to _pick_. Her exact words were 'You either request a new partner or I'm leaving.' Liv, I chose _you_." He saw her eyes widen, and something flash in them. "Liv, you said it was hard for _you_ not love _me_, but it's damn near _impossible_ for _me_ not love _you_."

She looked into the beautiful, endless, blue eyes before her, and her vision cleared. She felt the weight float off of her shoulders and the Tico Torres drum solo that had been blasting in her head for three days had finally stopped. But, so had her heart. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She couldn't speak. There was only one thing she wanted to do right now, and her body wasn't cooperating with her.

Elliot noticed how bright her eyes had suddenly gotten and he smiled. "Your headache's gone."

She nodded, slowly, and a smile crept across her face. She moved, only slightly, mere centimeters, toward him. Her head wasn't pounding anymore, but her heart sure as hell was. She could hear her pulse beating in her ears, feel every vain pumping in her body. "Are we gonna..."

"Yeah, we are." He, too, moved closer to her, about an inch, certain that his own heart would burst out of his chest, sure that if he looked down, he'd see it thumping through his shirt. Then, when he looked into her eyes, his heart stopped for a moment and he had to take a second to take a mental picture. He wanted to remember the last dying moment of the relationship they were leaving behind, before the new one began. He owed it to their friendship to at least wait out the flatline before breathing a new life, a new pulse, into it, bringing it back as something else. Something better. Something magical.

"You stopped," she said, taking his hands off of her head and holding them in hers as she leaned her head in a tiny bit more.

Elliot laughed lightly. "Promise you won't _hit _me," he demanded.

"No way," she laughed. "I reserve the right to kick your ass."

"Great," he said with a snort. "I have been waiting for this moment for so long, and if I get my ass kicked as a result, then..."

He wasn't able to finish his sentence. Olivia got tired of waiting. The second their lips touched, the rest of the world could have crumbled, broken off and floated off into space and they wouldn't have noticed. Nothing existed except the two of them, the step they were sitting on, and this kiss. Hands roamed, lovingly, delicately, tentatively, over heads and faces, but didn't dare move beyond for fear of taking things too far, too soon. Tongues touched, danced, a beautifully choreographed duet, a pas de deux that gracefully blended love, passion, trust, loyalty, friendship, and a quite bit of lust. Breathing, they decided, after being _suffocated_ for far too long in their respective personal hells, had become important, and they pulled apart. Their lips tingled, numb from the exertion and energy they had just been forced to withstand. Olivia sucked in the corner of her bottom lip, gently, and bit lightly as she slowly fluttered her eyes open.

Waiting, watching, right where she had left him, was Elliot. Happier than she had ever seen him, his blue eyes had darkened a few shades, a sign of his growing need for her, but they were also brighter and there was a light in them that she's never seen before. It hadn't been there this morning, she was sure. He said the only thing he could say to her. The only thing that mattered at the moment. "I love you, Liv."

"I love you, too, El." She pressed another quick kiss to his lips, then sighed. "We have to go back upstairs. We have to find Wakeman, and we have to act like _this _didn't just happen until we're done."

Elliot sighed, standing up, pulling her to her feet. "I know." They started up the stairs and he looked at her. "What_ do_ you wanna do about this, I mean, as far as _work_ goes?"

"Keep your mouth _shut _and your eyes _off_ my ass, and when we invite Tucker from IAB to the wedding, _then_ Cragen can stick me with Fin." Olivia said, very seriously.

"Why do _you_ get Fin?" Elliot said, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that Olivia had not only assumed they'd be getting _married_, but that they'd be inviting _Tucker._

Olivia pushed the door to the fourth floor open as she replied, "You trust _Munch_ to outrun or overpower someone who can take _me_ down? I can kick Munch's ass with one hand behind my back. Fin _might_ be able to protect me if I need it."

"Good point. You get Fin, I'll deal with Mr. Conspiracy," he said with a chuckle.

"Hey," Olivia said as they stepped into the bullpen, "Witty banter, smirks and smiles, walking at exactly the same speed? El, we're _back_."

Elliot smirked. "Liv, you know I would have kissed you, told you how I felt, the second she left. I just wasn't sure how you..." he stopped when a door opened and Fin came running down the stairs. "How you have no idea how many useless phone calls we've had." He jerked his head toward Fin to alert Olivia to his presence. She nodded, and thought maybe having Fin in the room would be enough of a distraction from Elliot, enabling her to calm down, slow her breathing, and maybe, just maybe, get her heart rate back to normal.

"Hey, guys," Fin said, pouring a cup of coffee. "Once Munch gets his slow, scrawny ass down here, you two get three hours up there. Did anything life-altering happen while we were sleeping?"

Elliot simpered. "Not anything that had to do with _this case_, no."

Fin plodded over to his desk, yawning. "Cragen didn't call?"

"Nope," Olivia said. It was the truth. Cragen would have called their cell phones. Munch trotted down the stairs at that moment, patting Olivia on the shoulder when he reached the bullpen. "All yours," he said.

Olivia smirked. A thousand ideas ran through her head at the thought of being alone in the cribs with Elliot for three hours. But, as much fun as having her way with the sexy, gorgeous hunk of detective would be, they had a psycho to catch. One that, because she'd been too busy living out a fantasy for the last ten minutes, she'd forgotten about. She picked up a sighting-sheet and shook her head. "Oh, no. I'm too _awake_ to sleep."

"I could use a nap," Elliot said, sending a powerful look at Olivia. "And you should probably take an hour and at least lie down. That headache was brutal, and your migraines usually come back."

"Wait," Munch said, "You spent three hours down here, alone with Benson and a migraine, and you're still alive?"

The four of them shared a laugh. Then Olivia's neck throbbed. She could feel the blood pumping beneath her skin, running through her veins, keeping a steady, intense, rhythm and she knew Elliot was staring at her. She nonchalantly, with a small smile, said, "Okay, we're going. But, if a single _one _of these leads sounds plausible, you come get us."

Munch and Fin nodded and dug into the pile of messages as Olivia and Elliot walked, trying to control their nervous excitement, up the stairs. Once they got inside, Olivia closed the door, and she swore she could hear Elliot's heartbeat pulsing in time with hers. He heard hers, too, and he swallowed, hard, as he hooked his pinky through hers, getting her attention, garnering eye-contact and a bright smile.

"Liv," he said, barely a whisper as he pulled her toward the bunk, linking the rest of their fingers together. She gazed into his eyes and her voice was throaty and dry as she said, "El." His knees hit the edge of the bed and he dropped onto it pulling her onto his lap. He kissed her, softly, sweetly, and with so much feeling it actually scared _both_ of them. Without breaking the kiss, he tugged on her hands as he flattened out on the bed, pulling her up so they were both lying down. So much passed between them in these few moments, in this one, prolonged, growing, deepening kiss, and Elliot knew if he didn't stop it now, it would go too far, and he could ruin this before it even began. He pulled away, slowly, and looked into her eyes. "I really do love you, _so_ much." He spoke softly, and it was clear that he was anxious. "What I want with you, what I _need_ to _do_ with you, I'm not about to do _at work_ with Munch and Fin downstairs," he said with a laugh. "And, it's going to take_ a lot_ longer than three hours. So, all I want to do, right now, is hold you."

"Sounds perfect," Olivia said, placing a light, gentle kiss to his lips. She snuggled close and he held her head to his chest and ran his fingers through her hair. She listened, and knew, then, for certain, that his pulse was racing as fast as hers was, beat-for-beat, in perfect sync. "I love you, too, El." she said, wrapping her arm around him. And in moments, in each others arms, they fell into a deep, peaceful sleep to the syncopated rhythm of their hearts.

Downstairs, Munch hung up the phone and sighed. "Man, this sucks. They probably _just _fell asleep." He looked across at his partner. "Do you wanna go get 'em or should I?"

"I'll go," Fin said. "They'll have a harder time killing me."

Fin climbed the stairs, completely unaware and unprepared for the surprise he was going to get when he opened the door to the cribs.

**A/N: Ohhh, who wants part three? Fin's reaction's pretty cool, his pulse does some crazy 'ish, because this story has a turn that I don't usually take. ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Pulse: more strongly felt when you see something you _really_ wish you _hadn't;_ more apparent when you feel your heart _breaking_.**

**DISCLAIMER:** **All SVU characters belong to Dick Wolf. Narrative, Plot, Dialogue and anything Original belong to TStabler©**

Fin knocked lightly on the door. There was no answer. He knocked a little harder, but still heard no one say anything. "Damn, they must have been really wiped out," he muttered to himself. He turned the knob and slowly opened the door, allowing the light from the hallway to creep in, up and over their entangled, cuddled, bodies. When the light hit Olivia's face, he gasped. She was so beautiful, _his Baby-Girl_, and she had a soft, content smile on her face as her arms were wrapped around Elliot.

Fin's pulse began to race. This wasn't happening. He was _sure_ that Elliot was married, and was going to _stay _that way since he was Catholic. Maybe he was reading too much into this. Maybe they had been talking, fell asleep, and ended up this way _unintentionally_. Maybe he was _fooling_ himself. As he watched the couple, if they _were_ a couple now, sleeping in front of him, he was hit with a gross realization. Something that, as a detective, he should have seen four years ago when he met them. They had introduced themselves as "Benson and Stabler". Elliot had told him that they came as a set, a matching pair, you can't have one without the other. He guessed, now, that held true in their _love_ lives as well.

He reached a trembling hand out and brushed the soft, silky strands of hair out of Olivia's eyes and whispered, "Hey, Baby-Girl, it's time to get up."

Olivia's eyes fluttered open and she shifted, causing Elliot to speak up, popping his eyes open. "Liv? You okay?" he asked, panicking.

"Yeah...Fin just...Fin!" She shot up and moved away from Elliot. "Woah, uh, this _isn't _what it _looks_ like."

"It _looks_ like you were _sleeping_, Baby-Girl. I _saw_ nothin', I _know_ nothin'. We got a call and we have to head out, so you two, who I did _not _just see cuddlin', need to get up." Fin began to walk out but Elliot stopped him.

"Fin," he said getting out of the bed.

Fin turned around and shook his head. "I didn't see anythin', Stabler."

"Thanks," Olivia said with a smile. Fin nodded with a sad grin. No thanks was necessary. Fin wasn't ignoring what he'd seen to _protect_ Olivia and Elliot, he was ignoring it in order to convince himself it _hadn't_ really _happened._

* * *

They pulled up to the scene and spotted Cragen's car. They all got out of Elliot's police issue sedan, took hold of their badges and walked toward their captain. Olivia stepped up to Cragen and asked, "What happened?" The tired, irritated looking man sighed. "He went after his next vic. He didn't realize she was a cop. She fought him off, he went after her again, she shot him. He's dead. It's over."

Munch, scanning the area, asked, "So, where is _she_? The woman, the _cop?"_

"Over there, by the EMTs," Cragen said, jutting his head toward an ambulance. Elliot took a step forward, but Olivia grasped his shoulder, the contact with her sending a pulsing wave of lust and sentiment coursing through his body. His head snapped toward her, fire in his eyes. "I'll go," she said, letting her hand trail from his shoulder down his arm, causing an all too familiar heat to rise in her belly. Her heartbeat quickened. She _needed_ him.

As she walked off toward the vic, Fin stepped forward and he and Elliot watched her introduce herself to the shaken, bruised woman in the back of the medical transport van. He had seen the brief, discreet touch, but he had also seen the passion rise and burn between them and he _swore_ he could feel the rhythm of their hearts hanging in the air, even _now_, after their connection had broken. He looked toward Elliot, as Munch and Cragen dealt with the medical examiner. "So, Stabler, what _did_ I walk in on before? Exactly," he asked, sounding as calm as he could, even though he could probably hammer nails into a wall if he stood in front of it, his heart was pounding so greatly.

"Fin, man," Elliot ran a hand over his face. "Liv and I, we, um, we're kind of..."

"Stabler, Fin," Cragen called, waving an arm. "You two, over here, now." Elliot sighed in relief. Not that he wasn't thrilled that he and Liv had taken a new step in their relationship, but he wasn't too sure how to _explain_ it to anyone. Let alone, someone he _worked _with. He and Fin shared an awkward glance, then stepped over to their Captain, Munch and the body of the man who had raped and killed eight women in three days.

Olivia walked up to them, glancing at Elliot, then addressing the whole group. "She's lying."

"Yeah," Munch said. "We know."

"Look," Cragen said. "We have all been awake and after this guy for seventy-two hours. Go home, _all _of you, he's not going anywhere. We can put the pieces together and plug up the holes in the vic's statement tomorrow, after you've all gotten some _decent_ sleep." He looked up at Olivia and Elliot. "Munch told me the call came in as soon as _you two_ got your break, so you're working on less sleep than anybody else. You're not allowed anywhere neat the precint until noon."

The five of them thanked Doc Warner, bid farewell to the rest of the uniforms, and made their way back to the street on which their cars were parked. "Okay, I'm going uptown, so I'll take Munch," Cragen said.

"You can take me, too, Cap, just back to precinct for my car," Fin said, not really wanting to deal with being in a car with Olivia or Elliot at the moment, knowing that they'd want to talk about it. If Elliot couldn't answer him _before_, then maybe there was nothing to talk _about._

"Okay," Elliot said. "I guess that means Liv's coming home with me." He sent a furtive glance at her and she smirked, the both of them aware that the phrase held a new meaning for them now. "I meant, um, I'm taking her home. To her place. Just, in my car."

"Right," Fin said, choking a bit. Just another thing he didn't want to think about. He got into the back of Cragen's car, Munch slid into the front and they pulled away.

Elliot got into the driver's seat and Olivia slid into the passenger's side, her heart instantly racing because they were alone, done with work, away from prying eyes, and possibly on the way home to share more of those incredible kisses, or maybe, if she was lucky, he'd stay. He'd wrap her in her arms and hold her, like he did in the cribs. It was the best hour of her life, and the best sleep she'd ever had.

"So," he said, putting the car into gear and pulling away. "Your place or mine?"

Olivia snickered. "I'm an old fashioned girl, El. You have to _at least_ buy me dinner first," she joked, looking into his eyes.

"Liv," he said, shocked, as his eyes widened. "I wasn't...I just wanted to..."

"I know," she said with a laugh. "Yours is closer, but I don't have any clothes at your place. I know you have a duffle bag filled with things at mine."

Elliot raised his eyebrow. She assumed they'd be spending the night together. "Good point," he said. "Yours it is."

They made it to her building in mere minutes, Elliot pulling the car to a screeching halt at the curb. He hopped out and ran around to the her side, opening the door for her. "Look at you," she said, "Being all gentlemanly."

"I aim to please," he said with a cocky grin and a slick bow.

"Oh, I bet you do." Her eyes widened as she realized she had said the words out loud. "Oh, um, wow. I _said _that."

Elliot laughed. "Yeah, you did. But, Liv, we don't have to _hide_ it anymore, remember? We can flirt, tease and torture _the hell_ out of each other now," he chuckled. "We _love_ each other."

"Yeah," she said as he took her hand and pulled her up the steps to her door. "We do." He didn't let go of her hand the whole way, through lobby, up the stairs since her landlord refused to fix the elevator, down the hall. He even used his copy of her key, which was already in _his_ hand, to open the door so he wouldn't have to let go of hers.

He kicked open the door, pulled her inside, pushed the door closed behind him, and tugged her toward him. Their faces were centimeters apart and their bodies were pressed together so tightly, they could feel each other's hearts pounding. They were keeping an identical, frenzied beat. "I love you," Elliot told her, brushing his lips over hers lightly. "_I_ love _you_," she replied, tilting her head to the side and leaning forward, aching to kiss him again. He smiled. "Just checking," he quipped. He finally moved in, that final millimeter, and their lips met, sending lightning bolts and shockwaves pulsing through their bodies. He gripped her hair in his hands, pulling gently, running his fingers through it. She did the same to his, and soon the drumming of hearts and smacking of lips became the music to which their tongues danced. He held her tighter and they both began to moan, sweet, sexy, sultry little intonations that provided the vocals to the percussion background track they had.

"Mine," Elliot said, the word sounding like a moan, between kisses.

Olivia sucked on his tongue for a moment. "Hmmm?"

Elliot pulled away, reluctantly, but looked her in the eyes, cupping her face with his powerful hands, the ones that had saved her life so many times, and he said, "You. Are. Mine." It was a request, a statement, a question and a demanding declaration all at once.

She nodded. "As long as _you're mine_."

"No one _else's_, Liv. I_ haven't_ been in a very, _very_ long time." He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her onto him, securing her around his waist. He reclaimed her lips and walked, blindly, to her bedroom. It was astonishing the he could find it with his eyes closed while carrying and thoroughly kissing Olivia. He dropped her, carefully to the bed, pecked her lips once more, and stood up. Without saying a word, he walked over to her dresser, opened the middle drawer and pulled out a soft, silk nightgown that she forgot she even owned. He smirked. He turned back toward her, crawled lightly over her on the bed, and snuck his hands up her sweater, pushing up her stomach, revealing the tight, defined skin and muscles beneath. He dropped his head and kissed it, every inch, before pushing her shirt further up. Taking the hint, Olivia tugged the V-neck off over her head. Elliot gasped at the sight of her in just her bra, and he leaned forward and placed a small loving kiss, just at the top, of each cupped, covered breast. "My God," he whispered. "You're gorgeous, baby."

Olivia was being thrown for a loop and her senses were frying. Her heart, _her pulse_, needed a good, strong, shot of Jack Daniels. She was confused. Hadn't they just talked about how they didn't want to rush this? "El, what..."

"Shh," he said. "Just let me work, here, baby." Elliot said with a smirk. He peered down and grabbed the front of the waist band of her pants, tugging open the button and sliding the zipper down. He slid the black slacks over her legs, and repeated his previous actions, kissing every inch of new flesh that revealed itself. "Oh, my God," Olivia said in a breathy tone, her eyes fluttering closed. "What the hell...oh, Jesus, El."

Elliot chuckled against her calf, which is where his lips had been at that moment. He reached up to the bed and grabbed the nightgown, then kissed, slowly, back up to meet Olivia, her moans growing stronger and her body trembling. "Liv, baby," he said, kissing her belly again, dipping his tongue into her belly-button.

"God, El, you haven't even really _touched_ me and..." she paused, biting her lip and bucking her hips. Elliot smirked and narrowed his eyes, dropping his gaze at her black boy-cut briefs. He saw a very dark, very wet spot, growing, right in the middle. "Oh, my _God_, Liv," he whispered. He was amazed at the effect he had been having on her, just by kissing her. His heart rate sped up, he needed to stop, or _go_, or _something_. He lifted his head back up, toward her, met her eyes and they were pleading, begging him to do _something_.

He climbed over her, his fully-clothed form straddling her underwear-clad one, and he lifted her body toward him. He kissed her, powerfully and filled with desire. He pulled away and slid the nightgown on over her head, slipping her arms though the straps. He snaked his fingers under the gown and unhooked her bra, sliding it off slowly, amazed at how prominent her nipples had become, poking out visibly through the red fabric. He kissed her again, trying to show all of his love for her with his kisses. One hand snaked through her hair, keeping her held against him, feeling the pulse battering against the nape of her neck. His other hand, with a mind of its own it seemed, traveled down to her chest and caressed her aroused and taunted nipples, making her moan in pleasure into his mouth.

He continued his ministrations, tweaking here and there, testing their boundaries. She grasped his head and fisted his short, black-brown hair, and he moaned, with a gasp, as she rocked her hips into his, furthering his own wanton need for her, and the friction bringing about her slowly-built, unintentionally manipulated orgasm, and perhaps, one of his own. She screamed, still latched onto his mouth, her heart beat itself into a tizzy until it finally stopped altogether.

"Holy shit, baby," Elliot said, as Olivia's head dropped back. "I didn't think...all I wanted to do was kiss you, dress you, and quite litearally _sleep_ with you."

Olivia laughed. "That was _some_ kiss, El," she said, trying to calm down, still wrapped in his arms. "And you'd better _sleep with me _every night for the rest of my life."

"Oh, I plan on it," he said, planting a kiss on the end of her nose. "I just can't do it in these pants." He winked at her, climbed off the bed and headed into the bathroom, leaving Olivia stunned, sated and with a very sexy smirk on her face. He came back, in his sweats, no shirt, and climbed into bed, snuggling close to his girlfriend.

Across town, a certain detective was tossing and turning in his bed, sleep was not happening. He had to _know_. Tomorrow, he would corner Elliot and ask point black. Demand a direct answer. He spent the next fifteen minutes, listening to his heart pound, preparing it for the breaking it would get in the afternoon.

**A/N: Thoughts? Reviews? It was a bit more wordy than most of my other stories, but this fic is taking a wordy, descriptive turn. I hope you enjoyed! **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Pulse: A bouncing, buffeting beat; a quivering, trembling undulation; a pounding throb; a fluctuation bringing about change.**

**DISCLAIMER: SVU characters belong to Dick Wolf. Story, narrative, dialogue and all original work belongs to TStabler©**

Waking up to him, wrapped in his arms, his scent the first thing she smelled when she took the morning's first breath, his face the first thing her groggy eyes focused on, was the most exhilarating thing she'd ever experienced. She smiled and sighed, pulled him tighter to her, and thanked God she woke up before the alarm went off. It was just passed ten, and they were forbidden to go in until twelve. She had a little time to enjoy this, to revel in it. She had dreamed of a morning like this for years, and to have her dream come true set her heart into a powerful throb. She ran her hand up his back, and that's when she saw him smirk.

"Morning," he said, grinning, his eyes still closed, returning the gesture of running his hand along her silk-clad body. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Olivia said furrowing her brow. "Odd thing to say first thing in the morning, El."

Elliot shook his head. "No, Liv. It's gonna be the _last_ thing you hear before you go to sleep every night, and the _first_ thing you hear when you wake up every day, for the rest of your life." He opened one eye and peered at her. "I'm gonna be the one saying it, just in case that wasn't clear."

Olivia laughed. "I got that. Thanks for the clarification, though."

"Anytime," he said, kissing her intensely. Morning breath, clearly, didn't bother him at all. He pulled away and looked into her eyes. "You taste amazing, even though you just woke up." He smiled, rubbed his nose against hers, and asked her, "So, what are we, Liv?"

"Kissing," she quipped, kissing him again.

He chuckled. "Baby, I meant what is _this_? What do you want _us_ to be?"

"What do _you _want?" she asked, her heart thumping wildly.

Elliot scoffed. "If I had _my_ way, I'd _marry_ you right _now_, but I know what I feel, and I know that I'm not giving you up, and I know the just lying here with you is making my heart pound."

"So, that means…you want what, exactly?" she teased.

Elliot looked her in the eyes, both eyes open now, and he smiled. "At the risk of sounding like a fifteen year old, Liv, I think we should date. I'm your boyfriend," he said, nodding his head.

She raised her eyebrow at him. "More like 'manfriend'."

"_Man_friend?" he asked, a cocky grin on his face, rolling over, pulling her on top of him.

Olivia nodded, rolling her hips into his, eliciting a groan and a moan from both of them. "You're not a boy, El," she said, seductively. "Not in _any_ way, shape, or form." She kissed him, rolling her hips again, and as her pulse raced, she clutched his bare chest. The five years of love and sexual desire for him took over, and the kiss deepened, her hips rolled _again_. She moaned, never feeling more like a horny teenager on her first date with the quarterback than she did at _that_ moment, she _prayed_ for some self-control, _begged _her conscience to wise up and stop because she was about to reach down and pull him out of his sweatpants, take him, right then and there. She tugged on his waistband and a nervous sounding breathy groan poured out of his mouth into hers, pulsating, reverberating, and he grabbed her wrist. The alarm went off. Saved by the bell.

* * *

They strolled into the bullpen together, Elliot whistling, Olivia smiling broadly. Cragen cocked an eyebrow at them. "You two look happy."

"Yeah," Olivia said. "I'm happy. El?"

Elliot nodded, tossing his keys on his desk and sauntering over to the coffee pot. "Happy, happy, happy."

"If you two are on drugs, I don't wanna know about it," Cragen said, shaking his head. "Now, we were discussing the discrepancies between the vic's statement and the evidence found on the perp's body. Benson, you _spoke_ to her. How did you know she was lying?"

Olivia flipped open her notebook. "She wouldn't look me in the eyes, for one thing. Usually a good sign. Her story changed three times in the five minutes I spoke with her, first she hit him, then she didn't hit him, then she hit him and scratched him. Normally, I would chalk it up to trauma, but she's a _cop_. She would have a much better sense of recall. Then, of course, there was the claim that he attacked her and there wasn't a scratch on her."

Munch nodded. "Yeah, we thought that was the kicker, too."

"We ran a check," Fin said, holding up a file. Elliot's eyes widened and he held out his hand for it. Fin, purposefully ignoring Elliot and handing the file to Olivia, said, "The vic and the perp were related. Warner finished the rape kit, it was negative. She killed him, all right. But, she proably did it to _stop_ him. Not to defend herself from him."

"She _knew_ he was killing these women," Olivia said with disdain. "How?"

Cragen looked at Elliot. "You two had the morning off. _You_ figure that out. Run the LUDs on his cell phone, and hers. Check e-mails, Olivia, you're the computer hacker."

"Um, I prefer the term, 'Technical Boundary Elimination Engineer,'" she quipped. She smirked at her captain, smiled at Elliot, then winked at Fin, who hid the fact that he went all mushy inside.

"To Computer Crimes we go," Elliot said, rising from his seat.

Olivia got up, too, and Fin followed them out into the hall. "Hey, Stabler." Fin called. "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, man." He turned to Olivia, who was waiting for him by the elevator. "Go on down, Liv. I'll catch up." He smiled warmly at her, and she met his eyes, his heart thudded as he watched her go into the lift. "What's up, Fin?" he asked, finally turning back toward his colleague.

Fin shuffled over, away from the squadroom entrance, and lowered his voice. "Look, man, I don't know why this is botherin' me, why I even give a shit, but," he paused, waiting for his pulse to stop trying to win the world's record for fastest speed in the hundred-meter-dash. "What's goin' on with you and Olivia?"

There was that thud again. Even at the mention of her name, Elliot felt a change in the way his system worked, reacted and responded. "Oh, wow, Fin. Um, I don't know if I should tell…"

"I'm not gonna go blabbin' to Cragen, Stabler. Hell, I ain't even gonna tell Munch. I just need to know." Fin scratched the back of his head and looked Elliot in the eyes. His heart pounded in his chest waiting for an answer. Praying that it was the word, "nothing".

"Liv and I are together, Fin. Very much together," he said, a light in his eyes, and a steady rhythm in his chest that he could feel coursing through his body. "Wow," he said, his eyes widening. "It feels amazing to say that out loud."

Fin didn't feel so amazing hearing it. The hard pounding in his chest had stopped. Broken hearts don't beat. Not only was the girl he'd spent four years slowly falling for suddenly ripped away from him, but it was done so by someone who had only recently left his wife, someone who could only be using her for a rebound, someone who, Fin knew, would _never do that_. "Oh," Fin said, realizing that he had known this day would come. "That's uh, that's…_great_." He knew Olivia was more in love with Elliot than anyone had a right to be with anyone else, and he would make her happy. "I'm happy for you," Fin said, not meaning it, at all. He'd meant he was happy for Olivia, because she'd finally had the man she'd wanted for as long as Fin knew her. All the signs were there, but Fin had ignored them, hoping she'd, one day, see _him_ instead. "She's waiting for you," Fin said, softly, sadly.

"Thanks, Fin," Elliot said, slapping him on the arm. As Elliot ran toward the elevator, Fin watched in awe. Olivia wasn't waiting for Elliot anymore. It was now _Fin_ who had to do the waiting. The waiting and hoping for the breakup that he knew would never come. He knew, now that his worst fear had been realized, that the _one _person who would hold onto her and never let go, besides him, of course, had beaten him, fair and square. Fin walked back into the squadroom, sulking, making the decision to sacrifice his happiness for Olivia's, not that the _choice_ was _his_, anyway.

* * *

Elliot and Olivia walked back into the bullpen, some time later, his hand on her ass with a smug grin on his face, her hand swatting his away with an annoyed look on her face. His tie was crooked, her sweater was untucked, they both had wicked, adoring, glittering gleams in their eyes. "I feel like I'm in high school," Elliot whispered to Olivia, discreetly running a hand down her side.

Olivia turned, raised an eyebrow, batted his hand away again and whispered back, "You pulled girls into empty closets to make out with them in high school?"

"No," he said with a slight chuckle. "I meant snaeking around so we don't get caught. But, Liv, man, if I went to high school with you, _no_ empty room would have been _safe_."

She rolled her eyes and smirked, walking toward the coffee pot. Her arm brushed lightly against Fin's as she reached for the sugar. "Hey," she said, looking up into his brown eyes.

His breath hitched and the heat coming off of her skin, most likely caused by her brief romp with Elliot, vibrated in the air around them. "Hey, yourself, Baby-Girl. Get anything off the phones?"

"Oh! Yeah," she took a sip of the coffee, choking a bit, her eyes widening. "Munch?" she asked.

"Who else?" Fin quipped. "Baby-Girl, I…" He was cut off when Cragen barreled into the squadroom. "Benson, Stabler, what'd you get?"

Elliot held up the printouts as Olivia walked back over to him, sandwiching herself between Elliot and their desks. Elliot began talking. "Officer Carter sent over _eighty_ text messages to the perp between eight A.M on the morning of the first murder and an hour before the perp was killed."

"The last text message told him to meet her at the pier," Olivia added, "And to come _alone_."

Cragen crossed his arms. "Sounds like a set up," he said. Fin looked over at Olivia. "What did the other texts say?"

"See for yourself," Elliot said, handing Fin the file with a shit-eating grin. Fin raised an eyebrow and stepped aside, Cragen took the file from Elliot. Elliot shrugged and picked up Olivia's mug, sipping before she had a chance to stop him. She cringed as he coughed violently. He looked at her. "Munch?"

"Who else?" she joked, sending a glance at Fin. His heart fluttered and he smiled, sadly, leaving Elliot questioning the meaning behind that look.

Cragen's eyes widened as he read the printouts of the text conversations. "She gave him the names and locations? Every time," he said, shocked. "Son of a bitch!"

"Yeah," Olivia said. "That was our reaction."

"Fin, Munch," Cragen barked. "Bring her in, and don't be courteous."

* * *

"Liv," Elliot asked from his spot on her couch.

She padded back into the living room, handed him a beer and plopped next to him, curling into his lap. "What?"

"Did you notice Fin looking at you kind of _differently_ tonight?" He placed a small kiss to her forehead as she leaned in closer, cuddling. He sipped his beer, then put it down on the coffee table.

Olivia cocked her head to the side. "No-oo," she said in a sing-song voice. "Did _you_?"

Elliot nodded. "He kept giving you this sad, resigned smile." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. "Almost like you just told him there was no Santa, but he was Jewish so it didn't matter."

"Now _that_ is what I call a metaphor, Elliot," Olivia said, exasperated.

"You know what I _mean_, Liv. I think…I could be wrong, but, _I_ looked at you like _that_ every time you went on a date with _someone else_. You were going out with another guy, it killed me, but I had _no right_ to be jealous because I was married, and I never told you how I felt," Elliot said, leaning back on the couch. "I think he might have a _crush_ on you."

"I think you're crazy, El. No _way_, it's _Fin_. He's like my _brother_. Besides," she said, turning herself around in his arms. "I'm spoken for."

"Yeah, you are," Elliot affirmed, pulling Olivia on top of him. Her heart beat rapidly; Elliot felt it against his chest. He looked up at her, worried. "Woah, baby, calm down."

"I can't calm down, El. Not with you. I don't _trust _myself with you." She lightly brushed her lips over his as her eyes fluttered shut. She felt the energy in the room shift and change, pulsing with a new, powerful, enigmatic essence that seemed to control her.

"No one said you had to, Liv," Elliot said, sliding his hands up her back, sending a quivering wave up her spine. "Just trust _me _with _you._ That's all I ask."

"Always," she said, her heart thumping into his, and she felt his rising up to meet hers. "You're one to talk. _That_ doesn't feel calm," she whispered, leaning closer, licking his bottom lip.

Elliot smirked. "Shut up, Liv." He pressed his lips to hers, feeding the fire that had been simmering, causing it to burn brighter and hotter. The air in the room was charging them, spurring them on, giving them permission. Making sure he had a grip on her, he stood up, carrying her into the bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed, finally breaking their kiss, only to discard his shirt and peel hers away from the perfect tan skin it hid. He tossed the garments aside and kissed her again, grunting as he struggled to shove her pajama bottoms off of her hips and down her legs. He tore his lips away from hers, giving up, and crawled down her body, slowly, dragging the flannel pants with him, a look of anticipation on his face. He looked her up and down, licking his lips, like a hungry lion that had just been given a juicy steak. "Thank God you chose not to wear underwear to bed tonight," he said with a great smirk. "Absolutely gorgeous," he said with a nod.

She sat up, smirking herself, and reached for him, running a finger into and around the waistband of his sweats, about to do what she had wanted so badly to do this morning. She slid her hand into his pants, watched his eyes flutter closed and her own widened as she finally held him in her hand, long, thick, hard, hot and ready for her. She stroked him twice, heard him cry a soft, "Oh, Jesus, Liv, baby," and his head dropped down to hers. She reached her other hand into his pants and slid the thick, cotton over his muscular hips and the pants pooled at his feet with a soft whoosh. She wrapped a hand around his neck and pulled him with her as she fell back onto the bed and kissed him, scooting back, further to the head of the bed, and when they reached the pillows he pulled away from her lips, looked into her eyes and told her he loved her. She felt the tip of him, the thick, hot, tip of him, waiting for permission at her entrance. She nuzzled him, wrapped her arms around his back and said, "God, El, I love you, too."

Their hearts, they could feel, were beating a strong, fast, hard, jutting tempo. Perfectly in sync. Just as he was about to push, about to finally know_ all _of this incredible woman, as she was about to finally _feel_ him inside of her for the first time, the way she couldn't help but _want_ to, her cell phone rang.

"Damn it to fucking hell," she muttered. She reached over to her nightstand, grabbed it and answered it, very nastily. "Benson!"

Elliot, chuckled, dropped his head to her chest in anxious, frustrated disappointment and peppered her collar bone and neck with light kisses before looking up to find out who had interrupted them and why.

"Ten minutes? But that's a little…Cap! Fine. Yeah, I'm _pretty sure_ I can _find Elliot_," she said gazing at him, naked, on top of her, almost _inside_ of her. "Bye." She hung up the phone and grunted in frustration as she nudged Elliot up. It seemed their first night together, like most good things, would have to wait just a little while longer.

**A/N: Good things come to those who wait! Elliot has a little chat with Fin, someone from Elliot's past shows up, and someone from Olivia's sends a cryptic message and a gift. If you think I should continue the Pulse saga…REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Pulse: beats faster, and harder, in anticipation of something. A pulse beats slow, steady, calmly when conditions are comfortable and stress-free. It has not yet been scientifically proven if a heart can pump so fast and hard that it explodes, but some NYPD detectives might test that theory…in a stairwell...watch out. You might trip and fall on the smut.**

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf, the lucky man, owns the characters. TStabler©**

They snapped into work mode almost as soon as they got into the car. "Forty-Third and Eighth," she said, as if they hadn't just been seconds away from completely changing things between them forever. As if the tip of his _dick_ hadn't just been inside of her, threatening to make her life _complete_. Olivia couldn't help but think that the constant interruptions were a sign from someone above that they shouldn't go there, that they shouldn't do it, that they shouldn't be lovers, but she was ready to tell that someone to shut up and fuck off!

"Liv," he began, unable to get the image of her naked, writing body out of his head. Unable to stop hearing her moans and taunting whispers in his ears. "We have time," he said in a whisper.

"Hmm," she responded, it came out in a grunt as she sipped the coffee from the blue plastic thermos she held in her hands, the caffeine causing her heart to speed up, making it unclear whether her pulse was beating so quickly because she could still feel him on top of her, kissing her, touching her, or if the coffee was just doing its job.

Elliot shook his head and started to drive, trying to get his mind out of that bed and onto the case. They rode in silence for a moment, until their witty banter kicked in, and their heart rates slowed to normal, falling into their comfortable partnership, their close togetherness that made them who they were. "So, Dr. Freud," Olivia said, quirking her eyebrow. "You really think Fin has a thing for me?"

"Yeah," Elliot said, turning onto Eighth Avenue. "I can't blame him. Look at you, baby. You're beautiful, you're smarter than everyone in the precinct, you're funny…"

"Funny _how_? Like, _weird_ funny, _ha-ha_ funny or _smelly_ funny?" She did not have any humor in her voice, and she sipped her coffee, glaring at him, like Joe Pesci in _Goodfellas_.

Elliot chuckled. "See, _that_, right there. _Benson_ humor. And Lord _knows_ where it comes from because your mother, Liv, I'm sorry, she sucked. You are _you_ because of _you_."

"And partly because of _you_," she mumbled.

He raised an eyebrow at her as the car veered onto Forty-Third. "How did I…"

"The last five years, El, you changed me, whether you know it or not. You gave me a reason to stick around, because _you_ stuck around. You gave me someone to hold onto, because _you_ held on. You were there for me, even when I tried to push you away, you refused to leave. You gave me the things that I've never had before, ya know? Trust, friendship, and…"

"Love," he said as he parked the car. "What do you think _you_ did for _me_? I didn't get any of those things with Kathy. Not really, Liv. It was always _you_." He brushed a hair behind her ear, and just like that, her heart went thumping away again. Damn him. She smiled at him, rolled her eyes, and got out of the car, walking toward Melinda Warner, crouching over a dead body.

Fin and Munch were waiting near captain Cragen and Olivia furrowed her brow. "This case calls for the whole unit?"

"When it's one of _our own_, it does," Munch said, peering over at her through his sunglasses.

"What?" Elliot said, trying to get closer to Doc Warner. He looked down, over the M.E's shoulder and gasped. "Okay, _how_ did_ this_ happen?"

"She was coming out of the restaurant. She was on a date. Perp hit _him_ over the head a few times, he's at Mercy General, unconscious," Cragen explained.

Olivia looked at Fin, snapping on a rubber glove. "No witnesses?"

"Uh," Fin was mesmerized. There was something in her eyes tonight, something that made them _shine_. His heart leaped. "What?"

"Witnesses, Fin," Elliot said. "People who are there at the time a crime is committed, and they can tell you what happened because they saw it?"

"Stabler, _shut up_," Fin snapped, turning toward him. He sent a softer gaze toward Olivia. "No. No one saw a_ damn_ thing."

Olivia looked at Elliot, who looked back at her with a shit-eating grin, as if to say "I told you so," and she smirked and shook her head. She knelt down next to Warner and brushed the hair out of the lifeless eyes of the former A.D.A. "She was one hell of a lawyer," Melinda said. Olivia nodded. "She always needed to be at the crime scene with us. She wanted to collect all of the evidence herself. Let's hope she did it one last time, huh?" Olivia picked up the limp hand and turned it over in her latex covered palm. "Blood, skin and hair," she yelled back to her colleagues. "Underneath her fingernails."

" 'Atta _girl_, Kim," Elliot said, stepping over to crouch down next to his girlfriend. "We didn't call her _'The Crusader'_ for nothing."

Fin, not wanting to give them a second to themselves, walked up behind them. "Greylek was a fighter, Baby-Girl," he said, resting a hand on Olivia's shoulder. "Wherever he is, he's probably in _pain_."

"Yeah," Olivia said, brushing Fin's hand off her shoulder gently as she stood to her feet. "Not as much pain as he's gonna be in when I get my hands on him." She snapped off the glove, angrily, and tossed it into the bin next to Melinda. Then, with a wicked look in her eye and a horrible thump in her chest, she stormed back to Elliot's car.

Elliot sprang to his feet, looking after her, worried. He looked at Fin, who was doing the same thing. He turned, then, to Cragen. "I should probably, um, _yeah_…" he said, pointing in Olivia's direction. He then bounded off after her, making sure they were out of view from everyone before pulling her into a warm hug and consoling her.

* * *

"The boyfriend gave us nothing," Olivia said, as she and Elliot strolled sleepily into the squadroom. "He kept complaining about his head, and threatened to sue the city because we didn't have any protective detail on Kim."

Elliot yawned. "Tried to tell him that we don't normally give lawyers bodyguards," he said as he plodded to the coffee pot, pouring two cups. "Unless we_ know_ they're in danger." He walked back to his desk, along the way he placed a cup of coffee in front of live, winking and smiling at her. "But, then he said that _now_ he's going to sue for neglect and discrimination."

Olivia sipped the coffee gratefully, even though it was disgusting, and nodded her head. "The bastard had the balls to ask me what I was doing tomorrow night. Said Kim wouldn't want him to grieve alone."

"Heartless prick," Fin muttered, watching Olivia closely. Why were her eyes so different?

Elliot glanced from Olivia to Fin, and back again. Olivia noticed this, and followed her man's eyes, catching Fin's. When she did, Fin automatically looked down at his desk. Olivia gasped. Elliot smirked. Olivia's head dropped into her hand and she let out a light, disbelieving scoff. Whatever sick game fate was playing with her, she wanted to quit the team. She didn't even to watch from the sidelines.

Cragen came out of his office, looking disheveled. "Stabler, Benson. You two, go down to Warner. She's got information about Kim." Elliot looked at Olivia, who hadn't moved. "Liv," he said. Olivia's head popped up and she blinked. "What?" she said, groggily. Cragen cocked his head. "Morgue," the captain said. "Go."

She nodded, chugging the last of her coffee. She rose out of her seat, following Elliot out of the bullpen. She stopped to push the call button for the elevator, but Elliot kept walking. "Liv. Stairs," he ordered. She shrugged, too tired to argue, and walked in step a few paces behind him, but altering her speed to catch up, soon walking directly in step with him. "So, you gonna leave me for Fin?" he quipped as he pushed the stairwell door open. She laughed. "Not a snowball's chance in hell, Elliot. I don't know what to do about this," she said with a sigh. "He's important to me, but I just…" she could do nothing but shake her head and they barreled down the first three flights, but then he suddenly stopped and held out his arm, to the side, stopping her from moving, too. He looked in front of him, down a bit. His heart thudded. Hers gave a hard jump in response, as if their bodies were having a silent, pulsing conversation.

Elliot slowly turned toward her, an evil, devilish look in his eye and an impish grin on his face. "Remember this step, Liv?" he asked. "No camera in this part of the staircase," he turned, bracing himself against her, one arm on either side. "Do you _know_ where we _are_?" His heart pounded, four times, exactly.

Hers beat, three times, answering his, and she looked into his eyes. "You kissed me, here, for the first time." He nodded, slowly. He leaned in, just grazing her lips with his, and whispered, "I love you." Beat, thump, whomp went his heart. She felt it.

Hers mimicked the rhythm. "I love you, too." She jutted her chin forward, just a bit, begging for his kiss. He complied. Their lips touched, as their hearts mamboed in perfect punctuated thuds. His left hand pried itself away from the wall and grazed down her body, stopping to tease her waistband, tugging, circling. He flicked open the button on the front with two fingers, smirking against her lips when he felt her hands riding down his back, swimming toward the front of his slacks. Elliot, taking the zipper between his thumb and forefinger, tugged agonizingly slow while slowing his kisses, prolonging the torture, until he had easy access to _her_. _All _of her. Olivia nimbly flickered his belt open and had his fly undone in moments, not wanting to dawdle the way he, so clearly, enjoyed.

His hand cupped her mound through her soaked, silken panties and she shivered with a moan. Her delicate fingers traced and gripped his aching, throbbing, pulsing erection through his boxers and he choked out a hoarse, breathy groan as he instinctively bucked into her hand. His fingers, still in a teasing mood, licked lightly at the fabric, peeling it away slowly, until he was finally able to run a single finger inside. He barely skimmed the back of the digit over her bare center, and felt how hot, warm and wet, she was. He moaned, a delightful chuckling moan, his heart palpitating faster as his next move became apparent. Her hands, meanwhile, had skirted away the elastic of his boxers, pulling the band down, gently, slowly, in the front, springing his manhood free from the cotton prison that it had been held captive in. She wanted to look at it, take in its beauty, but his kiss was so damn miraculous, she couldn't rip her mouth away from his. When her cool skin finally met his hot shaft, he gasped into her mouth, bit her bottom lip and slid his eager finger into her core, earning a similar gasping response from her. If hearts could explode from sheer speed and pressure, they were about to do it right now.

Olivia's right hand, moving slowly from his waist to his neck, pulled him closer, tighter, harder. Her left wound itself around the powerful piston in its grip and she stroked, slowly, then quickly, then slowly again, grazing the head with her fingertips, dragging her nails feather-lightly down the length to his balls, where she cupped and tugged gently, and the noises and reactions he was giving her in return were doing wonders for her ego, and it was certainly the best cardio-vascular workout she'd had in years. His hand wasn't standing idly by, no, his finger was working hard, fast, then another powerful digit joined its pal, feeling Olivia stretch for him turned him even more and he knew that when it finally came down to business, she would feel like _Heaven_. As he thrust and twisted his fingers inside of her, her moans, kept low and soft because of _where _they _were_, became more frantic, at shorter intervals. He pushed his luck, added another finger, pushing, maneuvering until he _made _it fit, earning a yelp and a grip from her hand that sent him to space. He saw stars. It was _divine_. Her stroking increased, their kiss became manic, frenzied, and he swiped her clit with his thumb at the same moment her thumb grazed over the tip of his swollen head. They were both_ so_ ready for this. Not the way they expected, not the way they planned, not even real _sex_, but _goddamn_ it they deserved _this_. Elliot tore his away from hers and she whimpered, but he had his reasons.

"I need to _watch_ you. Liv, _look_ at me." He pressed his forehead against hers, boring into her very soul through her burt-sienna eyes with his cerulean circles, and his panting matched his pulse. Fervent, hyper, intense. Olivia closed her eyes and bit her lip. "Oh, no you don't," Elliot said, thrusting into her especially hard to get her attention. Her eyes popped open. "Your eyes, damn it, stay _open_. And, shit, they stay _glued _on _mine_," he directed. "Jesus Christ, baby," he whispered, "I love you."

"Hmmm, love you, God, fuck, too, El," she cried, unable to really put a sentence together. He swiped over her little bundle of nerves again and he felt her clench around his fingers. She stroked the tip of him and down his length and the fire rose in his belly. It was time. "Oh, fuck, baby," he said, frantically stroking her clit. She clamped down on his hand and he saw her pupils dilate and she saw _his eyes_ sparkle and darken as she felt him shoot his warmth over the hand that had instinctively cupped over his head, saving him from an embarrassing mess. The most _intimate_ experience of their lives, the _first_ of _many_, where they looked deeply into each other's eyes at the moment of simultaneous incredible release, happened in the stairwell where they shared their _first_ real kiss, at _work_.

They took a second to regain composure, sharing a relived, sated, laugh and a few thousand kisses, adjusting themselves and their clothes. "Oh, my God, Elliot," Olivia said, throwing her head back into the wall with a laugh. "What _the hell_ was that?"

"Amazing, Liv. That was _amazing_," he said, kissing her, linking his hand in hers and pulling her down the steps, knowing they were running _way _behind schedule, and headed off to the morgue.

Melinda had been annoyed at their lateness, but since they showed up very happy, she forgave them. She gave them the new information and evidence, and they took the elevator back up to the bullpen. They walked into the squadroom and Elliot simpered as he watched Fin's face light up when it landed on Olivia. He felt awful, but there was nothing he could do. He didn't know Fin was in love with Olivia, but he wasn't about to break up with her to spare the man's feelings. This called for a "bro-to-bro" chat, which might end with the loss of the best friend, besides Olivia, that Elliot had ever had.

**A/N: What does Elliot say to Fin? Do Liv and El finally get a full night alone? Find out, if you want to, if you review? Next, in Pulse 6**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Pulse: steady and rhythmic when one is asleep, speeds up in cases of nightmares or lucid, exciting dreams. It also has a tendency to skip a few beats when faced with a potentially heartbreaking situation, especially if it's not your own heart that you're going to break.**

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf, the lucky man, owns the characters. TStabler© owns everything else: narrative, dialogue and storyline.**

Olivia had been staring at the file in her hands for an hour. How could the blood, skin and hair underneath Kim's nails have been her own? She started to think to herself, since everyone else was either in the cribs taking a nap, or at their desk taking one. _Greylek would have punched, kicked, scratched, bit, tore and..._"Hit him over the head. _He_ killed her, then he ran himself into the wall to knock himself out, to give himself an alibi."

"Huh?" Elliot picked his head up, groggy, his eyes half-lidded, with the front page to a police report stuck to his forehead. "Kim didn't have any defensive wounds because she didn't think she was being attacked. I think it was the boyfriend." Olivia stood up and explained her theory to Elliot and Cragen, just as Fin was coming downstairs from his nap.

Cragen looked over at the yawning detective. "Hey, Fin. Right on time. Wake up Munch and..."

"No, Cap. I'll go with him," Elliot said. Olivia looked at him, surprised and with a warning glare in her eyes. "Munch needs all the rest he can get. Liv, you should get some shut-eye, too."

Fin scoffed. "No offense, Stabler, but I really don't feel like goin' anywhere right now. Especially, not with you. You and Olivia..."

Elliot stepped over to him and lowered his voice. "Fin, man. We need to talk anyway. Just take the ride to Mercy with me. If you don't like what I have to say, tell me to shut up, we'll just talk to the boyfriend, and come right back."

Fin gulped, nodded, grabbed his coat and followed Elliot out to the car. He rubbed his eyes as he put on his seatbelt and sighed. "Okay, man. Talk."

"I know." Elliot looked at Fin, waiting for a reply. "You know _what_, Elliot?" Fin asked, jutting his head forward slightly. Elliot sighed. "I know you like Liv. But, I didn't know before we started...us."

Fin grew pale. "Oh," he said softly. His heart was doing ninety miles a minute in his chest. He was going to explode. He was embarrassed. "It wouldn't have stopped you if you knew, right? It was pretty damn clear she was crazy about you, Stabler. I just never thought that...forget it."

Elliot looked at him, keeping one eye on the road. "No, man, what? Talk to me."

"I never thought you and Kathy would...I guess I just always thought you two would stay together, for the kids or because of your religion or maybe just because you loved each other, ya know?" Fin shrugged. "I thought Olivia would give up on you. I was ready to be there when she did."

"Fin, man," Elliot sighed, again, tapping the steering wheel as they came to a red-light. "Kathy and I should have never gotten married. We were completely incapable of having a conversation without fighting. It's _always _been Liv. The last five years just made it clear. You _know_ I love her. I'm _madly_ in love with her. But, you, man, you're like a brother to me. Neither one of us had _any_ idea. You never _said _anything. We never wanted to hurt..."

Fin glared at him. "I know, man! No one wants to hurt anyone in situations like this. I'm still pissed the hell off at you, Stabler. I can't help the way I feel any more than you could. It's gonna take a while, but I'll get over it. _It_, not _her_." Fin ran his hand over his head as they finally started moving again. "If you hurt her I _will_ kill you."

"Fin, man, you are the best friend I've got, next to Liv. I need to know that we're okay," Elliot said, a pleading quality to his voice.

Fin shook his head. "Not right now we're not. I can't stand the fact that she's with you, and you can't stand the fact that I've got a thing for your girlfriend. So, no. We're not cool, man."

Elliot's heart broke, he didn't know what to do for Fin, but he knew he couldn't live without Olivia.

They rolled back into the precinct two hours later with a confession, recorded courtesy of Elliot's cell phone, from Kim's boyfriend. Elliot couldn't wait to tell Olivia but when he walked into the bullpen, she wasn't there. He was shocked, though, to see a blast from his past sitting in her desk. "Pete?"

"Elliot! Your captain told me you'd be back," the man said, rising from Olivia's chair.

"Yeah," Elliot said. "Oh, Fin, this is my old riding partner, Pete Breslin. Pete this is Fin Tutuola."

"He's your partner?" Pete asked, shaking Fin's hand.

Elliot shook his head. "No, uh, I don't know where she is, actually."

Pete scoffed. "She? They stuck you with a chick? How incompetent is she? She cry over the dead bodies?" He laughed at his own jokes. Fin and Elliot narrowed their eyes at him. "No," Fin said, his pulse speeding up. "Benson's not a crier." Elliot clenched his jaw and said, "And she's probably the most competent detective we've got in the unit."

Pete Breslin chuckled. "So, she's a lesbian then. Figures."

"No, she isn't," Elliot said, his arms crossed over his chest. "I'd appreciate it if you stopped talking about my partner when she's not in the room." His heart gave a small thud, the pressure building, his desire to punch his former partner growing as much as his desire to know where his current one was.

"Oh, she's in the room," Olivia said, walking in from the doorway. "Now who was talking about me?"

Breslin's jaw hit the floor. "Hello, Detective Buxom."

"It's _Benson_," she said. She looked at Fin. "Who's the asshole?" she asked, turning her head back toward Elliot. "Can I hit him?"

"In a minute," Elliot replied. "Pete this is Detective Olivia Benson, and I promise she can kick your ass."

"I would gladly bend over for her," Breslin said, smirking, and reaching out to touch Olivia's hand.

"Okay, wow. No. Not touching you. I'll catch your disease." Olivia shirked away from Breslin and moved to the other side of Elliot. "What are you doing here Pete?" Elliot asked.

Breslin raised an eyebrow and cocked his head, still looking at Olivia. "My son's in trouble. I need your help. You work sex-crimes, you're my pal, bada-bing, bada-boom, let's make a deal."

Fin cleared his throat. "If your kid committed a crime, Stabler ain't gonna cover it up for you. He's not _that_ much of an asshole."

"Gee, thanks, Fin," Elliot said, stinging from the words of his...were they still friends? Breslin looked at Elliot. "I'm not asking you to cover it up, I'm asking you to see what you can do give him the best chances. He didn't do anything wrong, the girl was asking for it." He looked at Olivia and smirked, eyeing her up and down. "They _always_ ask for it."

"Okay," Olivia said. "That's it, I'm hitting him." She moved to hurl herself at him, but Elliot held her back, his arm lopping around her waist. Fin flinched in painful jealousy while Breslin chuckled. "That's right. Control the woman, Stabler."

"Oh," Elliot said. "I'm not controlling her. I'm protecting you. But, now that you said that," he paused and let go of Olivia. "Go get him, Liv."

* * *

Olivia turned the key and pushed her door open, walking through to living room. She kicked her shoes off, took off her jacket and huffed. "That man was insufferable."

"Well," Elliot, who came in behind her, said, "Now he's insufferable and bloody. You broke his nose."

"He deserved it. For being an absolute prick and for trying to bribe a cop," she explained as the blazer she'd been wearing was tossed to the couch. "I can't believe you were friends with him! You had to defend and protect that jackass?"

"Well, Liv, seven years ago he wasn't like that. I swear," Elliot said, walking over to Olivia, pulling her until she was definitively ensconced in his arms. "When I transferred to SVU, we met for drinks once a month, then once every three months, then I lost touch with him completely. He's changed, and I don't know why." Elliot sighed. "You know we have to take his kid's case, Liv."

"I know," she said with a direct glance.

"But, no way in hell am I gonna get him out of any trouble just because I know his father. If he's guilty, he's going down. Hard." Elliot affirmed, seeing the slightly accusing and concerned look in her eyes. "Liv, You should have _heard_ the shit Breslin was saying when he found out my partner was a woman, before he saw you. Then when he started _talking_ to you…I almost _lost_ it with him."

She nodded. "Yeah, so did Fin. I've never seen him so pissed." Her heart gave a sharp thunk, and her pulse slowed. A sign of comfortable depression. "Did you talk to him?"

Elliot nodded, absently swaying Olivia in his arms, dancing to the rhythm his heart was keeping. "Yeah. He pretty much hates me. And he pretty much _loves_ you. He can't even stand to look at me and he can't take his eyes _off _you. I _lost_ him, Liv." Elliot's forehead dropped to hers, his eyes closed, and his heart pounded slowly. Sadness certainly had a much different effect on the heart than excitement.

"I'm so sorry," she said in a breathy whisper, stroking the nape of his neck, swaying with him now, losing herself in his arms. "I'm losing him, too, El. It's only a matter of time before he resents me, too."

"No, Liv. He's made it quite clear that he can get over us being together, but he won't get over you. You're the type of girl men _kill_ each other over, baby," he pressed his lips gently to hers, delicately, ignoring the kettle drum in his chest that urged him to deepen the kiss.

She smiled, softly, against his lips. "I don't think so, El," she said, kissing him again, pulling him toward the bedroom, her heart speeding up, her blood running faster. "But, thanks for the macabre compliment." She turned to walk into the bathroom, but Elliot grabbed her. He pulled her toward him, locked on to her eyes, and whispered, "Liv, I _would_ kill for you. I'd _die_ for you." Her heart stopped. She blinked. Her eyes darkened. She shoved Elliot on the bed, gave him an evil look and felt her heart knock into her ribcage. She was losing control and losing it fast.

"What are you doing, Liv?" he asked, the vein in his neck throbbing in anticipation.

She smirked. She crawled over him, slinking like a lioness, and said, "Shut up and let me work, here, El." Elliot grinned when she threw his own words back at him. She straddled his legs, never breaking eye-contact, and she unbuckled his belt, slipping it out of the loops, tossing it to the side. She un-tucked his white shirt and slowly unbuttoned it, from the bottom up, and she dropped her head, placing small, sweet kisses up his body, from his waist to his neck as she removed his shirt. His head dropped back to the pillow, his pulse frantic, and he left out a soft, "Holy fucking shit, baby." Olivia grinned, as she nibbled lightly on his neck, then made her way back down, trailing the same, slightly wet kisses down her previously taken path. She unzipped his black pants, pulling them down, taking his patterned boxers with them, and she grinned wickedly at him. There it was, in all its majesty.

Elliot peered down at her, nervous, excited, a little bit afraid. She looked like she was going to _eat _him. She threw his pants behind her and took him in her hands, gently grazing her soft fingers up and down, teasing him. He gasped, and jerked his hips. "Christ Almighty, Liv. Baby," he breathed, gripping the sheets. "Wait," she whispered. She leaned over, slowly, and kissed him, everywhere around, above and below, but never giving him what he needed. He was dying, slowly but surely, death was coming to get him. She, finally, placed a small, loving kiss, on the very tip of his shaft, and he growled, from low in his belly.

She crawled back up to meet him, captured his lips with hers, and stroked him, slowly, lovingly, strongly, to an incomparable finish. He moaned and grunted into her mouth, clutched onto the back of her head, deepening the kiss as his heart came to a crashing halt. He ripped his lips away from Olivia's and he saw, in her eyes, proof that he belonged with her. He tugged her shirt over her head and rolled on top of her, finally about to take what was rightfully his, despite the fact that it would hurt someone they both cared about.

* * *

Somewhere on the Lower East Side, Fin and Munch were waiting at a crime scene, huffing. "What the hell? Benson's not answering her phone," Munch spat, snapping his own shut. "You get a hold of Stabler?"

"No, I didn't even call him. You do it," Fin spat.

Munch blinked. "Okay, Fin. What is wrong with you? You've been acting…"

"They're not gonna answer their phones. I know exactly what they're doin'," Fin yelled, his heart cracking as it thumped wildly against his chest.

"What?" Munch asked, pushing his sunglasses further up on his nose.

Fin smirked and scoffed. "I'm gonna go get them." He smirked, an evil glare in his eye. "I'll be back." He stalked toward his car, fire coursing through his veins with every pump of his pulse, with a manic grin on his face, wishing he had the balls to answer Munch's question.

**A/N: Are they going to handle another interruption well? Especially, if it's Fin? How can they work together now? Want more?? **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Pulse: a rhythm, a beat. A lifeline, a sign that something or someone is alive. Certain**_** situations**_** have a pulse, tension so thick it throbs.**

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf, the lucky man, owns the characters. TStabler© owns everything else: narrative, dialogue and storyline.**

Since they had declared their love for each other, they couldn't keep their hands to themselves. They'd been trying to have this moment, this perfect, intimate night, for three days. Constant interruptions kept them from consummating their relationship, but they were both determined to get through it tonight, or someone was going to be killed; they both had tempers and when sexual frustration was added to the mix, it wasn't pretty. Elliot smirked as he looked down at his partner, of five years, who was also his girlfriend, for less than a week. His heart thudded as he took in their current position, what they were about to do. He moved, slightly to left, readying himself at her slick, hot entrance, and kissed the woman he'd been in love with since the moment they met, moaned as she kissed him back just as energetically and she bucked her hips, forcing the tip of his pulsating member inside of her; they gasped, sighed in relief and deepened their kiss.

Olivia broke the kiss and looked into his perfectly blue eyes, kissed the tip of his nose and ran her hands down his back. She pressed her open palms into his lower back, silently begging him to go on, go deeper. He rested his forehead against hers and gazed intently into her sparkling pools of chocolate brown, and he pushed himself into her, not too slowly, but not in one fell swoop either. He was quite well endowed and Olivia wasn't used to anything even close to his size. There was a slight pain as he stretched her, but she remained fixed on his eyes, despite the tears threatening to fall, and moaned a soft, "Oh, my God, Elliot."

He kissed the corners of her eyes, gently swiping away the tiny tears with his lips, then as he buried himself, to the hilt, filling her so completely, he moaned as she cried out his name softly, and he, still looking her in the eyes, whispered, "I love you, so much. God, you feel incredible." She smiled, digging her nails into his back and said, "I love you, too." Elliot reached down and lifted up her right leg, and he began to move, keeping a steady rhythm, somewhere between agonizingly slow and painfully fast. It was if they had been lovers for years; their instincts told them exactly how to move to throw the other into a state of pure bliss, the way they knew each other seemed to naturally tell them what they needed, and it was the single most perfect, intense, intimate experience of either of their lives, even through their kisses they never broke eye contact or untangled their hands, which had wound themselves together at some point. Elliot had just picked up his pace, when there was a loud, frantic knock at the door.

"Holy motherfucking shit, you have_ got_ to be kidding," Elliot growled. "Fuck, Liv," he whispered, his eyes closing for the first time, his head dropping back to hers as he stilled his motions. "Shit," Olivia replied with a chuckle. "This is really not fucking funny, I have no idea why I'm laughing." She give Elliot a nudge, and he pulled out of her, leaving an aching, throbbing, whimpering need in his wake. Olivia felt it, coursing through her system, as she grabbed her robe off the hook and padded, pissed off, to the door. She had just finished tying the pink satin belt when she turned the knob and pulled, revealing Fin on the other side. He burst into the apartment without an invitation and glowered at her. "Sure, Fin. Come on in," Olivia quipped.

"Munch and I have been calling you for the last _twenty minutes_. What the_ hell_, Baby-Girl?" He tried to control his terribly arrhythmic heart as he looked at her, in a knee-length satin robe, falling only to her knees. The color set off her tan skin and dark brown features so perfectly, and he knew she was probably naked underneath it. Her hair was tousled and slightly damp, her face was flushed, her cheeks and lips were rosy and red, and she had a sheen of slight wetness all over her body. "Did I interrupt your shower?" Fin asked, hopeful.

"Yeah, and the water was _just_ getting _hot_. My phone was out here, on vibrate, Fin. We, uh, _I _am supposed to have the night off, so what suddenly came up that you and Munch can't handle it on your own?" Olivia folded her arms, and her pulse quickened when she heard Elliot's voice, and footsteps. "Liv, who was at the...door. Hey, Fin." Luckily, Elliot had the good sense to throw on sweatpants and a tee shirt, knowing whoever was at the door would not approve of two detectives, partners no less, being naked together.

"Stabler? What are you....never mind. We got a triple homicide, mother and two kids. The mother was raped. It's all hands on deck. Looks like your hot shower is gonna have to _wait_, Baby-Girl," Fin said with a smirk.

"Yeah, what else is new?" Olivia sniped. "Give us five minutes, Fin." Olivia led Elliot into the bedroom and helped him get dressed, buttoning his shirt for him, with soft kisses up his chest. She tied his tie for him, finishing the perfect Windsor knot with a kiss to his neck. He did the same for her, lavishing her chest with attention as he slipped her bra on and clasped it for her, kissing his way down her toned stomach as he pulled her sweater on over her head. He straightened out the gold necklace she never took off, pulling the clasp to the back, and placed four nibbling kisses on the side of her neck. This was love. This was romance. This was what had been _interrupted._

They walked out of the bedroom, fully dressed and ready, then grabbed their badges, guns and cell phones off of the table, moving in perfect synchronicity. Fin balked at this, recalling how they'd always moved at the same speed, sharing a pulse, and he grew envious. "You two ready?"

"Yep," Elliot said. "Lead the way."

Fin walked out into the hallway, and Elliot spun Olivia around to give her one last amazing kiss before they had to go into "Partner Mode." They didn't notice Fin step back into the doorway. He saw them kiss, he saw them smile, he saw how happy they made each other, and his heart started pumping faster, only he was certain it was no longer red, but black. He couldn't bring himself to be happy for them. Not at all. Not yet.

* * *

"Munch," Olivia said getting out of the car, "What's the story, here?"

Munch met her halfway, slapped her on the shoulder, and sighed. "The kids are young, Benson. You need to keep your partner under control. You know how he gets when there's children involved." Munch told them what they had, what little information it was, and followed Fin, along with Elliot and Olivia, into the building. The mother wasn't hard to look at, nothing they hadn't seen a thousand times before. When they walked into the boys' room, the mood changed. Olivia's blood ran cold and she sense that Elliot's heart had started throbbing. The two young boys in the bunk beds looked like little angles in the dark, but when Fin turned his flashlight toward them, Olivia and Elliot let out a harsh gasp, and she threw her arms around him, knowing what his reaction would be. "El, it's okay. You know it's _not_ him. Breathe!" Fin rolled his eyes at Elliot's reaction. He wasn't having it tonight.

"Jesus, Liv, it looks just like him, baby. When he was that little," Elliot whispered, in a sob. Olivia nodded. "I know, El. I _know_. Just _breathe_." Elliot took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes, his pulse racing, and thanked God for Olivia at that moment. If she hadn't engulfed him when she did, he would have gotten violent. The oldest boy, on the top bunk, was the spitting image of Dickie, Elliot's son.

After collecting what evidence and witness testimonies they could, they rode back to the station in silence. Elliot's brooding and seething was only maddened by the sexual tension between him and Olivia. Olivia was uncomfortable, to say the least, both physically and emotionally. She loved Dickie like her own son, and if he was still six years old, she would have broken down, flipped out and driven to Queens herself to make sure the boy was okay. Fin was irritated, not by the case, but because he couldn't get the image of Olivia and Elliot kissing out of his head. It had been burned into his memory and was replaying, over and over, like a taunting reminder that Stabler had what he wanted and wasn't letting go. Only Munch, in the driver's seat, had been calm.

"You guys are going to be okay, right, Stabler? You and Benson?" Munch asked as they pulled up to the precinct. "Yeah," Elliot mumbled. "We're going to be just fine. We can get through this," he said with a nod. "Together," he heard Olivia whisper, and he smiled slightly.

When they rolled into the bullpen, Cragen was waiting by the white-board, all of the information and photos had been posted and he handed them file-folders. It looked like they were pulling an all-nighter. He explained that the father had been stationed in Iraq, in the Army, so it was definitely not him. They were looking for someone who had chosen this family at random. Cragen dismissed them, telling them to get to work. Olivia turned to her desk and gasped, for on her desk were a dozen pink and white roses.

She glanced over to Elliot, who looked pissed as he shook his head, answering her silent question. They weren't from him. "There's no card," she said as she turned the vase around and peeked into the flowers. "They're beautiful."

Fin smiled to himself as he picked up his phone and dialed the female victim's sister's number. Elliot saw his furtive smirk and scoffed. "Liv," Elliot said, "Come here."

Olivia stepped over to her partner, leaned into him slightly and as he whispered his observation in her ear, she gasped. "Holy hell," she mumbled as her face fell. He looked at her and smirked as he said, "As much as you say that, you _have_ to know it's an oxymoron, right?" Olivia's frown perked up, only at the corners, and she laughed a little, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend. "Mission accomplished," he said with a wink. Olivia winked back, thanking her lucky stars for him. He _always_ knew how to make her smile.

* * *

Munch had gone to nap in the cribs, Cragen had gone to One-P-P to schedule a press conference, and Olivia had gone down to see Warner. Fin and Elliot were alone, sitting in their desks, silent. Until Elliot looked across at his former friend. "So, _you_ sent _my_ girlfriend roses?"

"Who said they were from me?" Fin said, narrowing his eyes. He swiveled in his chair and folded his arms. "There was no card, remember?"

Olivia was about to step into the squadroom when she heard Elliot speak. She stopped, and listened. "Look, Fin, who _else_ would they be from. You smiled, looking all smug, when she said they were beautiful. Which they _are_. But, man, what are you trying to do, exactly?"

"She_ is_ my friend, Stabler. I can send her flowers if I want," Fin spat.

Elliot sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, too. "You've never sent her flowers before, and it's not her birthday or anything, so you don't have a reason. The only one who's allowed to give her presents and flowers _without_ a reason is _me_. Are you trying to come between me and Liv?"

"Maybe," Fin said with an evil smirk. "I'm just showing her that someone else out there wants her and she doesn't have to settle for you. She has options."

"She's had plenty of options, Fin. The woman is fucking incredible! Do you know how many guys she went out with this year alone? Granted, none of them got a second date, and I gotta say her reasoning for that gave my ego one hell of a boost."

Olivia chuckled to herself beyond the dooor way, remembering how Elliot had reacted after she told him she had an "Elliot Scale" and if a guy fell below a 98 he didn't get a second date. Elliot laughed and showed her _his_ list of "Reason's I'd rather be with Olivia" that he kept in his wallet. They were meant for each other. She heard Fin speak, then.

"Look, Stabler. I told you I wasn't happy about this. And as much as I think about it, the more I know I'm never _gonna_ be. So, maybe I didn't sign the card because I don't care if she knows they're from me or not, just as long as she knows they're _not_ from you. "

"Fin, are you saying that you _don't care_ if she's with _you_, just as long as she's _not_ with _me_ anymore? Is _that _your goal?" Elliot asked, shocked.

Fin chuckled. "I hope you're ready to play, Stabler. Because this is gonna be one hell of a game." Fin went back to sorting through witness statements.

Olivia's eyes widened. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard, and she couldn't let on that she knew. At least, not to Fin. Was he really that in love with her? Was he really that angry with Elliot? She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and her heart pounded against her chest as an idea came to her. She knew that it would piss Fin off, but maybe he would see the truth, somehow.

She stepped into the bullpen, threw the file from Warner down on her desk and glared at Elliot. "You son of a bitch," she said, through gritted teeth, with a smirk. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

Fin raised his eyes, smiled and leaned back to watch the show. "What did you do, Stabler?"

"I...I don't know...nothing! Liv, what are you..." he was interrupted.

"Interrogation room," she spat. "Now!" Olivia stalked off into the cold, metallic interview space and waited for Elliot.

Fin chuckled as he watched Elliot nervously get out of his seat and go after Olivia. "_That_ was really _easy_," Fin muttered. Elliot gave him the finger and walked into the interrogation room.

He closed the door behind him, walked over to where she stood, arms crossed against the wall. "Liv, honey what did I..."

She grabbed him. Her lips were on his, pulling, biting, licking, smacking and kissing the hell out of him. She pulled away slowly, because her heart was throbbing, so were several _other_ places on her body, and she didn't want to jump him in the interrogation room, no matter how good of an idea it seemed. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I just needed to get you alone."

"Oh, thank God! You broke my heart out there, baby." Elliot kissed her again, thinking that she had brought them in here to finish what they started at home. She pulled away again. "Christ, El. If you don't stop I'm gonna throw you down on that table and have my way with you," she said with chuckle. "Why is that a bad thing?" Elliot asked, nibbling on her ear. Olivia laughed again. "El, I heard you and Fin talking. I _know _what he's trying to do. It's not gonna work, you have to believe that. I'm _not_ leaving you."

"I know, Liv. Baby, I know," he said, rubbing her back.

She peered into his eyes and said, "We have to show _him_ that, and I've got an idea. He wants to play games? We'll play games."

**A/N: What does Olivia have up her sleeve? Will it make Fin realize she's not gonna leave Elliot? Or, will it just make him try harder? Review to find out! **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Pulse: speeds up during moments of exertion, exhilaration and expelling energy. During exercise and rough game play. Let the games begin. **

**DISCLAIMER: SVU and its Characters belong to Dick Wolf. Storyline and dialogue, and narrative belong to TStabler©**

"So, what happened?" Fin asked, his heart racing, as Olivia and Elliot walked out of the interrogation room. He noticed Elliot straightening his tie and smoothing out his pants, Olivia was fixing her collar and running her fingers through her hair, which looked slightly damp, as it had that morning.

"Oh," Olivia said. "Elliot thought he could get away with _pretending_ those roses weren't from _him_. When I went to see Melinda I stopped to ask, just out of curiosity, who called the florist. The desk clerk downstairs said they were ordered from _this_ department."

Fin scoffed. "You think they were from Elliot?"

"Well, Fin, who _else_ would send me flowers?" she asked, smirking. "Someone should wake up Munch. We need to move if we're gonna catch this guy." Fin grunted, sent a harsh glare at Elliot and stormed up the stairs to wake up his partner, listening to the conversation his two colleagues were having along the way. "You bit me," Olivia said, looking through Warner's file. "You deserved it," Eliot chuckled, "You bit me first." Fin rolled his eyes and growled under his breath.

Cragen came in, then, in his Captain's uniform and shouted, "Everybody, awake and down here, now! This bastard struck again."

* * *

Melinda Warner, M.E, was already on the scene. "I want to prepare you, you'll cry, you'll throw things and you'll hate the world," she said as she led the detectives into the brick house.

"Jesus Christ," Olivia said as she stepped into the brownstone, her heart beating fast and breaking faster. Fin was about to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder but Elliot beat him to it, wrapping his arm around her. "I know, Liv," he said, shielding her eyes from the playpen. The lifeless body inside was that of a child, barely two years old. "This sick son of a bitch," Olivia yelled. "Damn it, she was just _a baby_!" She yanked free from Elliot's hug and barreled out of the room, searching the rest of the premises in a brooding, seething, and angry silence. "Hey," she yelled from the bedroom. Fin and Elliot ran in, pulses racing, and stopped when they saw her, standing by the bed, holding up a framed photo. "Doesn't _he_ look familiar?" she asked with an angry smirk.

"Holy shit," Fin spat. "This just stepped up to a whole new level of weird."

* * *

Cragen posted the photo up on the white-board and faced his unit. "So, our connection is the father. This man had two wives, two families that we know of. Someone's out to destroy this soldier's life. Munch, find out if he's got anymore family out there. I'm gonna call Washington and get Private McShane sent home. Benson, Stabler, when he gets here, you two are gonna have a nice, long, chat with him."

"What am _I _supposed to do, Cap?" Fin asked, annoyed. "Sit here and twiddle my thumbs?"

Cragen turned and glared. "No, Fin, actually you're on ass duty, at your desk, doing the entire unit's paperwork until you get whatever bug crawled up your ass out of it! You've been on edge lately, and it's affecting your work. This morning, you refused to call Stabler, you barged into Benson's apartment, interrupting a personal moment! You can't even think straight with either one of them in the room, and if you ignore Elliot's attempts to hand you evidence one more time I'm going to put it in your redbook! I'm the commanding officer around here, I'm fucking _omnipotent_. I know what's going on, and Fin, you need to _grow up_! You can't work with him if you can't even look at him!" Cragen threw a file into Fin's hands and stormed into his office.

"Holy shit," Elliot said, stunned at what had just happened. "You okay, man?" Fin shrugged and blew off the question.

Olivia raised an eyebrow at Fin. "Something going on with you and Elliot?" she asked, concerned, to see if he would tell her the truth. "You're like brothers. What's the problem?"

Fin shook his head and got started on the pile of DD5s on his desk. "Even brothers fight sometimes, Baby-Girl."

"What are you fighting _about_?" she asked, sending a furtive glance at Elliot.

Fin coughed. "There was pie. In the fridge. Only _one_ slice. Like, the _best_ pie in the entire city. Stabler _ate _it without asking anyone _else_ if they wanted it."

"Pie?" Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You never told me _you _wanted the pie, and you _knew_ that I wanted the pie, since I was the one who _introduced you_ to the pie, and basically told you it was _my_ pie.!" Elliot said, smirking.

"Yeah, I didn't see your _name _on it. And you _claimed_ the _pie_ when you already had _cake_!" Fin yelled.

Elliot scoffed. "You can hardly call what I had before _cake_, it wasn't sweet and it was really crumby and I think I may have actually been allergic to it. Besides, I wanted the pie before I was even finished with the cake and I like the pie _better_!" Elliot sighed, "You _didn't tell me_ you wanted the pie, Fin! I'm not psychic! I don't wanna lose a four year friendship over gourmet dessert!"

Olivia couldn't help it. She laughed. Like a crazy person. "You're fighting over pie? Do you have any idea how _ridiculous_ that sounds?" She looked at Fin, she saw the love in his eyes and it killed her that she didn't return those feelings, and never would. Her heart pounded, but she knew what she had to do. "Fin, Elliot backed you up when you needed it, he was here when shit went down with your son, he took a bullet for you. And, like, five for me, but my point is that you two have a close, tight relationship. Are you _really_ going to let a slice _of pie_ ruin that?" She looked him deeper in the eyes. "Without even asking the pie what _it_ wants?" She rose from her seat and shot both boys a look before she left the room.

Fin looked after her, his heart slowly accelerating. She knew. How much did she know? Humiliation and heartbreak were not a good combination of feelings, but she was right. He wasn't even thinking of what Olivia wanted. He was going to ask her what she wanted, but not before trying to change her mind one last time. He grinned as he went back to the mountain of paperwork in front of him.

* * *

Elliot turned the key, stepped inside, and heard the shower running. He smirked as he took off his coat, hung it on the rack, and took off his tie. He stripped down on his way to the bathroom. He slid open the shower curtain and Olivia smirked when she heard it, and her pulse quickened. It was amazing how he affected her. She didn't turn around; she wanted him to work for it. Her heart thumped madly when she felt his hands on her shoulders.

"Oh, I'm sorry. No pie-eating in my shower. The fruit will clog the drain, and my landlord hates being bugged in the middle of the night over plumbing problems," Olivia said, a slight chuckle escaping.

"Excuse me," Elliot said, running his hands down her body. "I will eat _my_ pie anywhere and anytime I want, thank you." He spun her around and pressed her up against the cool tiles, kissing her fiercely. "You are one delicious piece of pie," he said, kissing her again."

"Compare me to food again and your ass is on the couch until you turn _forty_," Olivia said, biting his lip.

"Hey,_ Fin_ called you pie, I was just playing along. You _almost_ got him to talk to me like a human being," he mumbled into her neck as he suckled on her rapidly thumping pulse. "You left, and he said he was sorry...for not _being_ sorry." He squeezed her lavender body wash into his hands and massaged it over her, working up a thick lather.

Olivia scooped up some of the soap and slid her hands down his slick body, feeling his reaction to her against her thigh, and she moaned. "I'm sorry, El. We'll fix this, I swear."

"Liv," Elliot said, "I don't think we can just yet. The man's in love with you and can't have you. He has to _watch_ us, I know what that's like. You remember what an ass I was to Porter. I hated knowing that the two of you were..."

"I didn't sleep with him," she said, pulling Elliot toward her. "Letting you _think_ I did, though, was a blast. You are _hot_ when you're jealous."

Elliot's heart jumped, knocking against his chest. "So, I'm the _only_ guy you've slept with in _over_ a year," he said with a cocky grin.

Olivia nodded and wrapped her arms around him. "Well, if we stop getting _interrupted_, you _will _be."

Elliot growled, then, feeling the need to claim her, as he pushed himself into her, letting the hot water run over them, washing away the remaining suds. "No one's gonna interrupt us now. Not exactly how I wanted to do this, but I can't wait anymore, Liv," Elliot whispered as he thrust into her. "I love you, baby."

Olivia's eyes fluttered shut as her nails clawed into Elliot's shoulders. She wrapped her left leg around his waist and cried, "I love you, too." Elliot grabbed her leg and swung his hips, it was slow, deep and passionate and they never stopped kissing. The water ran cold, thirty minutes later, but they were so _hot_ that it felt quite good. Elliot reached his hand down between their joined bodies and swiped her clit, causing her to cry out against his lips. This moment was a long time coming and they'd made it last as long they could; Elliot was ready to blow and he needed to take Olivia with him.

"Oh, God," she moaned, tilting her head back, breaking their kiss so she could look into his eyes. "Elliot," she cried.

"I'm right here, Liv. God, baby, let go, I'll be right behind you," he responded. "Oh, God, Liv." He felt her tighten and tense up, he saw her eyes glaze over and she bit her lip, pressing them together. He felt how fast her heart was pounding, his was keeping the same pace and he gave her three more solid thrusts and he swiped her clit again. She screamed his name, hers flew out of his mouth on a grunt as he came inside of her, a brilliant light bursting behind his open eyes.

"Oh, my God," Olivia whimpered, resting her forehead against Elliot's.

Elliot laughed. "Your neighbors are going to think that you've suddenly gone Holy-Roller. I plan on making you _pray_ violently, loud and often."

Olivia chuckled and held on to him, tightly. "That was..."

"Amazing," Elliot said, turning off the water. Olivia nodded and kissed him again.

They remained still, panting, clutching each other as their heart rates slowed and he finally pulled away and opened the curtain. He dried her off before wrapping a towel around himself and doing the same. He threw the towel in the hamper then carried her into the bed, smirking, preparing to love her, the _right _way this time.

On the other side of town, Fin sat in front of his computer, ordering something special for Olivia to be shipped overnight. "If she wants to think _this_ is from you, Stabler," he said to himself, "You'd better be prepared to face the consequences."

**A/N: What did he buy for her?! What are the consequences? Who's winning this game? Oh no! Review!!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Pulse: races to an explosive pace then stops suddenly when you realize your life may be over. Panic and heartbreak can cause a pulse to become erratic and unstable **

**DISCLAIMER: SVU and its Characters belong to Dick Wolf. Storyline and dialogue, and narrative belong to TStabler©**

There was definitely something different about her, Fin noticed. Her eyes were brighter, her smile was unfading and her attitude, though still tough and hard, had a more relaxed quality to it. Something had happened last night. Something big.

She stepped out for a bit, probably to see Warner. Elliot was with Munch and a witness up in the lounge. Fin took the opportunity to put a small, blue box on her desk. He smirked. He had a feeling she'd think it was from Stabler, and he had a feeling she'd freak out about it. He couldn't wait to see the fireworks. He couldn't wait for her to find out he was the one who gave it to her, either, after the fight, because then it would be too late. Then he'd win.

Olivia came back, and she caught Elliot's eye as he came down from the lounge with Munch. They began chuckling to themselves, but they both stopped as they looked at the box. They glanced, knowingly, at each other. Olivia picked up the blue, square box, stared into Elliot's eyes, and opened it. Her own eyes widened. She knew who it was from, she knew what it was meant to do, she just didn't know how to react. If she yelled at Elliot, that would be what Fin wanted. If she pretended to be ecstatic about it, then she and Elliot would have to keep up with the charade, landing them both in some hot water, even if the _idea_ of wearing his ring wasn't so horrible. She took a deep breath. She decided that the only thing to do, the only thing she _could _do, was to simply give it back. She snapped the lid shut and quietly, without saying a single word, placed the box back on Fin's desk, in front of him. She shot him a soft glare and walked back to her desk.

Fin paled. What the hell just happened here? How did she know?

Elliot looked at Olivia and she shook her head letting him no she didn't want to talk about it. She'd spent so long thinking no one loved her, months refusing to believe Elliot ever _could_, and now he was all hers and Fin was trying to stake his claim on her, too. When did she become the type of girl men fought over? This had to end, and it had to end fast. She was gonna have to talk to Fin herself.

"Lunch is here," Cragen said, coming into the bullpen with a box of assorted deli sandwiches. "You've all got an hour."

Elliot ran over, picking up his food, and Olivia's. Olivia rose from her desk and stepped over to Fin before he could get to the box, though. "Can we talk?" she asked. "Alone."

"Yeah," Fin said with a nod. She looked at Elliot, quickly, and raised her eyes to the cribs, alerting him to where they were going. A sign for him to stay by the door, maybe? Or just stay close? Olivia led fin to the quiet room, shutting the door behind them, and stood against the wall with her arms folded. "What's up, Baby-Girl?" Fin asked.

Olivia's heart pounded. She was scared shitless. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was hurt him. "Fin, I know...or, I think I know...how you..."

"I love you," he blurted out. Fin's heart sped up and it started to hurt to breathe. "Okay? I do. I'm sorry."

"Don't be _sorry_, Fin. I love you, too," she said. She saw his eyes light up and he stepped closer. She held out a hand and her pulse battered against her neck and wrists. "_Not_ in the same way. Fin, you're like the worlds best big _brother_, and that is so special to me. I love you, Fin, but I'm _in love_ with _Elliot_. You once told me that you would never do anything to hurt me, but what do you think you've been doing? Watching you two duke it out every three minutes, you leaving me these little gifts and sending me flowers and candy to piss him off, and you won't leave us alone for a single second, even at a crime scene! That all hurts. So much. You two are best friends, and I'm not worth throwing that away."

Fin felt a hard knocking in his chest. "Yes, you are Olivia. Baby-Girl, you _really_ are," he said, stepping forward, his heart pounding.

Before she could react, or stop him, his lips were on hers. They were surprisingly soft and he ran his fingers through her hair. She stiffened. She refused to kiss him back, she refused to touch him, except to push him away. She stared, in shock, at him. Her eyes filled with a house-blend of hurt, confusion, anger and a little bit of love. "Why did you do that?" she asked.

Fin smiled. "I wanted to. I wanted you to feel what I feel, to _know _what I feel. Did you? _Do_ you?" he asked, his heart still feverishly racing inside his chest, bounding against his ribs.

Olivia shook her head. "Fin, I...no, I didn't. I don't. I _can't_ return those feelings. If you really love me, you'll just leave me and Elliot alone, and go save your friendship. Save _our _friendship."

"Right. Well," Fin said, his heart shattering, "I had to try. I had to know what it was like to kiss you the way he does. To love you, just for a moment."

"Just," Olivia ran hand through her hair and huffed. "Talk to him. Fix things with him. Get your friend back. Shit, Fin! Why did you have to _kiss_ me? I think you may have just gotten what you wanted." She shoved him aside and threw the door open, ran down the stairs and out of the bullpen, her heart pounding and breaking all at once, breezing by her lunch and a very confused looking Elliot.

"What did you do to her?" Elliot asked as Fin came down the stairs.

Fin sighed. "Nothin'. I just...we talked. She told me how much she..." he paused when he saw Munch and Cragen walking around with their lunches, getting coffee. "How much she wants _you_ to have the pie. She's happy when _you_ have the pie. She told me I had no right tryin' to take the pie, since you bought the pie, and I'm sorry. It's not gonna stop me from wishin' I had the pie, but I'm not gonna try to steal it from you anymore. The pie is yours."

"Yeah?" Elliot asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Fin said. "Though, you should know, I may have, uh, _tried _to take a bite of the pie."

Elliot's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"The pie wasn't havin' it! Don't blame the pie! The pie most definitely did not want to be bitten. Not by _me_," Fin said, backing up. He skirted around Elliot to get to his desk.

"_We_ will talk about this later. I have to find...my pie." Elliot ran out of the room and down the hall.

Cragen and Munch looked at each other, stirring their coffee. "So, either it's really good pie, or Fin doesn't know we know about Olivia and Elliot," Cragen said.

"I'm gonna go with really good pie. Probably a government conspiracy. The drugged the cherries or something," Munch said, smirking at Cragen and sipping his coffee. Cragen shook his head and chuckled, heading back into his office.

* * *

She was huddled against a wall, her knees to her chin, her hand over her mouth and a look of sheer panic in her eyes. Her heart was going ninety-five miles per second, she had no idea how she was going to tell Elliot, and even less of an idea of how she was going to survive when he walked away from her because of it. Elliot had a soft spot when it came to her and this was going to kill him.

It took him fifteen minutes to find her. He looked in every ladies room in the building before he went up to the roof. He pushed the door open and her head snapped toward the noise. Her eyes widened and so did his. "Liv," he yelled. He ran over to her and crouched down in front of her. "Liv, I..."

She interrupted him. "El, please, just listen," she cried. "Fin kissed me. I didn't want him to, I didn't kiss him, I pushed him away, I am so sorry..."

He held a finger to her lips, silencing her. "I know. He told me. I'm mad at him, baby, not you." He swiped his finger over her lips and his heart gave a thud when she pursed her lips and kissed his finger. Such a simple act, but such an emotional one. "Oh, Liv," he said, sitting next to her and pulling her close, "Come here."

"He loves me, Elliot. I mean, I didn't kiss him back, I swear, but I could still tell, he meant that kiss, and it was not a brotherly smooch." She looked at him, her pulse racing, now for a different reason, and she said, "I thought you were going to..."

"Break up with you? Liv, I know you'd never do that to me. Even if you did kiss him, I'd give you a chance to explain before I threw everything we have away. baby, we've changed our entire relationship. If this ends, badly, that is, then I lose you forever. I lose my best friend, my partner and the love of my life. I'm not prepared to give all of that up without one hell of a fight. I never will be, either, so..."

Her lips were on his before he finished his sentence. She moved over him, straddling him, keeping him up against the wall. He pried her lips away from hers. "Liv, baby, what are you doing?"

"I love you, El. _Only_ you. You have nothing to worry about, I'm never giving you up. I want you," she grinned wickedly. Her hands moved down to his belt and he jolted.

"Here?" he yelped. "On the roof? At work?"

Olivia stopped moving. "Oh, right. Well maybe we..."

He pulled her head back down to his, kissing her, and flicked open the button on her pants. He chuckled. She unzipped his pants and slipped her hand into his boxers. He groaned into her mouth as she freed him from the constraints of his pants. "Oh, shit," he mumbled. She lifted herself off of him, only slightly, so he could pull her pants and silk panties over her hips. She lowered herself back down, onto him, and held him close as she rode him, on the roof, at work. "Ten minutes," she whispered.

"What?" he asked, confused, as she raised and lowered herself on him, moaning and kissing him.

"That's when we're supposed to be back from lunch. In ten minutes," she told him."

Elliot moaned, kissed her deeply and grabbed her hips. "Then you'd better move faster, baby."

* * *

They walked back into the squadroom, _twelve_ minutes later, out of breath and laughing. They saw Cragen, a man in an Army Dress Uniform, and Trevor Langan. "Oh," Olivia said, panting. "You're Private First Class McShane," she declared, looking toward the military man.

"Yes, Detective Benson. Captain Cragen informed me that you and Detective Stabler will be handling my case," McShane said.

Elliot furrowed his brow. "I thought that we were _all_ in with this one."

"Well," Cragen said, angrily. "_Detective Tutuola_ might have a conflict of interest, therefore, Munch is out, too."

Olivia paled, her heart still thumping. Cragen didn't call him "Fin," which meant trouble. "What? What does _that_ mean?"

"It means," Trevor said, coldly, "That his son, Ken Randall, might have been involved. Detectives, if you don't mind stepping into the interview room, Private McShane will tell you all about it."

Olivia and Elliot looked at Fin, who looked scared and lost. They knew that, despite everything that had happened, he would need them now, more than ever, and they would be there. They just hoped he knew that.

**A/N: Oh, dear. What happens when Olivia tries to help Ken? Does it make Fin fall more in love with her, or does it make it easier to let her go? You want Pulse 10? Review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Pulse: slow and steady when normalcy is reached; frantic and frenzied when a life is in danger, a life of loved one, a friend, or a friendship.**

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns the characters and settings you'd see in SVU, TStabler© owns the narrative, plot and dialogue of this story. **

"Well," Olivia said, stepping out of the interrogation room, "It's not as bad as…"

"Save it," Fin spat. "You know I don't expect you to get Kenny out of trouble, or sugar coat anything, for me. Not after everything I've done to you. Just tell me straight. What did he do?"

Olivia folded her arms. "McShane's given us a good reason to suspect Ken," she said, then she sighed. "Don't think I'm gonna hate you now, Fin. You can't help how you feel anymore than I can, so you're just gonna have to deal with me treating you like nothing's happened. Elliot, however, still wants to rip your balls off." She softened her expression. "But, he also still cares about you. We're gonna get you through this, and we're gonna find out how Ken's involved, if at all. We're gonna go get him right now. Fin," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "It's gonna be okay."

"You really shouldn't touch me," Fin said, snidely. He narrowed his eyes at her and she jerked her hand away from his shoulder and cleared her throat.

Elliot walked out of the interrogation room , followed by Langan and McShane. He shook both of their hands, looking at Fin with a raised eyebrow. The lawyer and the Private, the latter in tears, left the squadroom and Elliot walked over to Fin and Olivia. He looked at Fin and said, "McShane's got a _third_ family in Queens. They could be in danger. How that guy got away with this shit, I'll never know." He turned his head toward Olivia. "We have to go," he said. He looked at Fin, nodded curtly, with a bit of an attitude, and ushered Olivia toward the door.

They'd been gone for over three hours, and came back empty handed. "He's not on campus, he's not at his mother's and he's not in any bar, café, or library within a ten mile radius of Hudson University," Olivia shouted as they walked back into the bullpen.

Elliot tossed his keys onto his desk and huffed. "This is only making him look guilty, Fin," he said, sorrow filled eyes glancing at Fin, expecting a blow up.

"I know. What are you gonna do?" Fin asked Elliot. "The usual Stabler _manhunt_?"

Elliot narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean? I'm going to find him, bring him down here and sort this out, Fin! I'm not going to…"

"Okay," Fin said, interrupting. "You'd have every right to, though." He sighed and raised his eyes to meet Elliot's. He instantly felt guilty for trying to hurt him, deliberately. That's what had been going through his mind when he kissed Olivia. Yeah, he _wanted_ to kiss her, but he _also_ wanted to hurt Elliot. He wanted to kiss her _again_, too, which made him feel even _worse_. Why they were both being so considerate and courteous about this, he didn't understand. He expected both of them to jump at the chance to get even, hurt him back, attack him. He didn't deserve friends like Benson and Stabler.

"Fin!" Olivia bellowed.

"Huh?" Fin said looking up.

"I've been calling your name for the last three minutes. You okay?" she asked, her voice laced with honest concern. "I asked if you could call Ken's cell."

Fin had been lost in thought. He simply nodded and pulled out his cell phone.

* * *

Ken Randall was brought in at five-to-midnight. Fin saw him and his pulse started to race. The two uniformed officers who had been escorting him turned into the interrogation room and Fin snapped his head toward Olivia, which only made his heart beat faster. Her eyes were soft, gentle, as if she _didn't_ plan on going into that room and throwing the book at his son. Her lips were pink and pouty, and he knew from experience that they were soft and her kiss was the sweetest possible thing on the planet. It was the sweetest _sin_, kissing her. A sin, he knew, because she didn't love him; she belonged to someone else, and thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife and whatnot, but he lived _nowhere near_ Elliot and there was _no _ring on Olivia's finger.

Olivia smiled sadly at Fin as she followed Elliot into the interrogation room, her heart beating fifty times faster than it would have during a normal interrogation, since this was someone close to her. She leaned against the wall as Elliot closed the door. She knew he was going to be friendly, fatherly, "Detective S." for Kenny. Her heart raced. She loved when he was like this.

"Kenny," Elliot began, "What were you thinking? Sleeping with a soldier's wife? Skipping town when she was found dead? You got yourself into some horribly deep shit. Talk to me, buddy, tell me what you know."

"Christ, Detective S." Ken looked up at him, then at Olivia, then back to him. "I got a phone call. A guy. He told me why he did what he did to Tanya, then said I had twenty minutes to get out of the city. If I went to the cops he'd come after me, then he hung up."

Olivia stood up straight. "What did he say? Why did he do it?"

Ken sighed. "He said that Scott took _his_ family away from _him_, so he was going to the same. Get even. Everyone he loved, every wife, every child, every _friend_. I had no idea he had more than one wife! Who does that?"

"Wait, you...you _know_ Scott?" Elliot asked, furrowing his brow. "McShane didn't say you two were friends."

"We're not," Ken choked. "I, uh, _was_ his best friend." Ken slammed his hand on the table. "Damn it, I knew he was cheating on her but I said nothing, because he was my best friend and I couldn't betray him, even if it would break them up. I was heartbroken when they got engaged. I didn't even go to their wedding."

"You were in love with her," Olivia said, her voice low, mellow.

Ken nodded. "Yeah. I didn't tell him until they were already married, but he still flipped out on me. I told him it was just too hard to be his friend; I hated seeing them together. I, uh, didn't see him for a year after that. When he was being deployed to Iraq, he called me. He asked me to take care of her."

"Kenny," Elliot said, silently thinking of things with himself and Fin, "I don't think he meant he wanted you to _sleep with_ her, there, kid."

Ken chuckled. "I know, I know. It didn't happen right away. I just checked in on her and the kids every once in a while and all those old feelings were still there. I still loved her. So much. We had dinner, all of us, one night, and we ended up on the couch, watching a movie, after the kids went to sleep. I told her how I felt. I kissed her, just to see what she would do."

"That's how it always seems to start," Olivia said, stepping toward the table, away from the wall. She looked at Kenny and she saw so much of his father in him. The apple really didn't fall that far from the tree.

They spent another hour with Kenny. They took his phone to see if they could find out where that call came from, then they released him. They had nothing to hold him on since no_ physical_ evidence linked him to the crime scene. As he watched his son leave, Fin's heart rate returned to normal. He didn't hear Elliot scream, yell or throw anything, and he hadn't seen Olivia run into the bullpen in a huff, and Ken hadn't left in tears or injured. Maybe things were gonna be okay. "So?" he asked the dynamic duo as they approached their desks.

"So...so far, he's just guilty of being a horrible friend and a chicken, Fin," Elliot said. "We told him not to leave the city, we have to dump his phone, he's still a suspect."

Fin nodded. "I understand. Thanks, Stabler. For how you handled him," he said, quietly.

"Don't _thank_ me. I did my job. I would never throw Kenny, or _any_ suspect, under the bus because of personal shit, Fin," Elliot said, without looking at him. When he finally did look up, he smirked, narrowed his eyes and said, "You'll be happy to know, though, that he is _just_ like you." He threw Kenny's statement at Fin and walked up the stairs to the cribs.

Fin looked up and saw Olivia yawning, preparing to follow him. He asked her, "What the hell does that mean?"

Olivia looked at Fin. Her eyes sad, her smile weak. "Kenny was Scott McShane's best friend. Until he told him he was in love with Scott's wife, Tanya. Then, he started sleeping with her," Olivia said. "They haven't spoken since, and now Scott..." Olivia stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes widened and she ran up the stairs, bursting through the door, her heart and her mind both racing.

"What the..?" Elliot shot up in the bed when the door slammed open. "Liv?"

"When you were in the Marines, how long did it take you to get clearance to board a flight back from your posts?" she asked, her hands on her hips.

Elliot looked at her, raised an eyebrow, and said, "A couple of days. Why?"

"Cragen called Washington _yesterday_. McShane came in _today_. From active duty in Iraq? No way in hell. He was already _here_," Olivia said. "He was here _and_ he had just found out that his first wife was sleeping with his best friend."

Elliot pointed to Olivia. "So, you think..."

"I _think_ he _knows_ who did it. I think he hired someone to kill his first family, drive across town to kill his second family to make it look like they had a grudge against him, then he called Kenny to _make_ him leave town. McShane came in, deliberately gave us Kenny's name, knowing we'd find out he was gone, which would make him look like he was running from _us_."

"McShane _did_ get nervous when he found out Fin was Kenny's father," Elliot said, remembering. Realizing. "He knew that we'd be able to find Kenny and he'd tell us about the phone call."

Olivia nodded. "We gotta find McShane before he realizes we're looking for him."

Elliot got up and Olivia turned to leave. Elliot spun her around and kissed her roughly, passionately, with a soft moan. He pulled away from her and chuckled at the shocked expression on her face. "What was _that_ for?" she asked, blinking. Her lips stung and the rest of her body cried for more.

"I love you. Isn't that a good enough reason?" He started to walk away but Olivia stopped him.

She _knew_ what that kiss was for, now. She _felt_ it, as her pulse sped up. "El," she yelled. "It's _not_ gonna happen. _Ever."_

Her turned, smirked and looked into her eyes. "I know, Liv. But, just in case, I am _never_ asking Fin to _take care_ of you. Come on," he said, pulling her out of the bunkroom. "Let's go get McShane."

**A/N: in the next Pulse, if you want one that is, the results of the McShane's interrogation. Ken gets in a bit deeper. How does Fin thank Olivia for getting him out? What does Elliot say about it? **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Pulse: when you lose the one thing that matters to you, you no longer have one. **

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and its characters. TStabler© owns the narrative, dialogue and plot of this story**

"McShane isn't talking," Munch said. "He was staring at Benson, growling at Stabler, he punched Langan and he wants to make a phone call." Munch and Olivia had walked out of the interrogation room and were leaning on the wall, waiting for a response.

Cragen nodded. "Give him a phone. Let's see who he calls. Tap it, though. Record it. Benson, go up to TRU, hack into the system and trace it." Olivia nodded, and ran.

Olivia came back from the Technical Response Unit with a harrowed expression on her face, ten minutes later, biting her lip. "We have a problem," she whispered to Elliot.

Fin was watching intently, he couldn't hear what they were saying, but he saw them look at him, he saw Olivia glance over at him twice. "What?" he asked. "What's happenin'?"

Elliot sighed. "Fin, McShane called Kenny. Their conversation wasn't exactly friendly, and it looks like Kenny may have..."

"He lied to us," Olivia said bluntly. "I'm going to Hudson University. El, stay here, work on McShane. If I'm not there to distract him, maybe you'll have more luck." Before anyone could protest Olivia was out the door. Elliot sighed, he shot a horrid glance at Fin and stormed back into the interrogation room, ready to make McShane rue the day he was born.

An hour and a half later, Elliot had knocked a confession out of McShane. Olivia was right. Scott was discharged from the Army and sent home a week ago, and he came home to surprise his first wife, Tanya. He walked in on her in bed with Kenny and flipped out. He stormed out of the building. He went back later that night, killed Tanya and the two kids in a fit of rage, but knew that Kenny would be able to implicate him, so he hurried across town to kill his _second_ wife and child, they were getting divorced, anyway, not that it was a good excuse. He had a friend of his call Kenny from a prepaid, untraceable phone, and tell him to run so the cops would think he was guilty when Scott pinned it on Kenny.

The phone call to Kenny had revealed, not only that Kenny knew Scott killed her, but that one of the kids was _his_. Kenny ran, and let the man who killed his son_ almost_ get away with it.

Olivia brought Kenny back, three hours later, at three in the morning. They both looked exhausted and he had been crying. He looked at Fin. "Dad," he said, "Can we talk?"

Fin looked at Cragen, who nodded, and walked with Fin and Kenny into the interrogation room. Olivia yawned and plopped into her seat as Elliot walked over with hot coffee. "Hey," he said softly.

"Hey, yourself." She took the mug, gratefully, and sipped as her eyes closed in pleasure.

Elliot gruffed. "I'm jealous of the coffee, now. Anything that makes you make that face that isn't me instantly pisses me off," he quipped. "What happened with Kenny?"

"We talked. I went to him as a friend, not a cop, and gave it to him straight. Told him what kind of trouble he was in and what he needed to do to make it right, and after he broke down and told me everything, I told him he needed to come here and tell it to the Captain. I took myself off the case," Olivia explained, sipping the coffee again.

Elliot ran a hand through her hair, something he only did because they were alone. "You're an incredible cop, and an even more incredible woman."

"You noticed," she said looking up at him. "About time." She winked and smirked at him.

"Oh, Liv. I've noticed for years, you know that." He leaned in, slowly, carefully, to kiss her, but the metallic door to the cribs swung open and Elliot backed away. "Hey, Munch! Nice nap?"

"No, those things are lumpy and squeaky," Munch said, clomping down the stairs. "Your turn." He pointed to Elliot.

Elliot gave Olivia a soft look and climbed the stairs, hoping she'd take a break soon and join him.

* * *

He had rolled over and blinked his eyes open when he heard the door open. He heard voices, one of them was Olivia's. "What are we doing up here Fin?" she asked, sounding tired and mildly annoyed.

Fin looked at her and smiled. "Thank you, Baby-Girl. Whatever you said to him, removing yourself from the case so you couldn't take his statement and have him feel betrayed, it means so much. After everything...you do care, don't you?"

Olivia smiled. "Fin, you're my big brother, of course I still care about you. Ken is good kid. He made a few mistakes and when he was threatened he ran. He was scared, he just lost his son, he needed help."

"And I am so thankful that you were there to help him," Fin said. Taking a step closer. "You're really somethin' else, baby-Girl. I love you."

"I told you I..." she was cut off, her next words sounded muffled and panicked.

Elliot bolted up and jumped out of the bed, reaching for the light. He was heartbroken when he saw Fin kissing Olivia, running his hand down her shoulder, over her arm, caressing her and Olivia trying _desperately_ to push him off of her, but too stunned and exhausted to have any strength behind her attempt. Elliot grabbed Fin by the collar and pulled, then tossed him across the room, he landed on a bunk. "What the hell is going on in here?" Elliot yelled. He looked at Olivia, who looked terrified. "Liv?"

Fin's eyes widened. "Stabler? What the hell are you doing up here?"

"I _was_ taking a nap. Your turn!" Elliot yelled, fuming.

Fin got up, smirked. "What did it _look _like?" he asked, getting in Elliot's face.

Elliot pushed him back, hard, into the wall. "Fin, don't fuck with me right now!"

"Oh, what?" Fin furrowed his brow and took a swing at Elliot, landing a hit to his right cheek. Elliot swung back, knocking Fin in the left eye. Fin swung again, but Elliot moved and Fin hit Olivia.

Elliot shoved a shocked Fin out of the way. "Oh, my God! Liv?" He grabbed Olivia. She was pale. Shaking. "Are you okay?" he asked her. Olivia nodded, rubbing her shoulder where the blow landed.

"Baby-Girl, I'm sorry! You have to tell him. Tell him, Liv. Tell him you love me," Fin said, stepping closer. "What you did for me proves it."

Olivia's eyes widened, the tears in them blurred her vision. Her heart raced, pounding violently in her chest. "What? Fin, you ass! I did what I did because I love you like a _brother_! I care about Kenny! It doesn't mean I wanted you to come up here and grope me! Jesus Christ, I can't take this shit anymore. If this is what it's going to be like, then I can't...Elliot, I'm sorry," she said, the tears finally falling, pushing him away. "I love you, but I..."

Elliot's heart stopped. "No, no, no. Liv, do _not_ do this." Elliot said, his own heart starting to shatter and shake. "I saw you trying to fight him off, I know you didn't...baby, come on," he begged.

Olivia shook her head. "I don't want to have anything to do with either one of you. Not until you can act like adults." She gave Elliot a heartbroken look, but there was something in her eyes. Something that he understood. Something he found an incredible amount of_ comfort_ in. As Olivia stormed out of the crib door, Elliot turned to Fin. "Are you happy now? She was fucking happy for the first time in her entire life. She was happy with _me_, and you ripped it all away from her."

Fin, his heart shattering, knew he was right. As Elliot ran out to try to find Olivia, Fin watched two people he loved walk out of his life. His heart stopped, too.

* * *

The banging on her door was loud. Incessant. Insistent. She had just gotten home and was cranky and tired and upset, but she knew who it was. She sighed, padded softly to the door and took a deep breath. She opened the door and he was standing there, looking hopeless. Helpless.

"Liv?" he choked.

She sobbed and threw her arms around him. "I'm sorry. God, I am so sorry!"

His eyes closed and he squeezed, taking a few steps, pushing them into the apartment. "I knew, when I looked into your eyes, what you were doing, but I hated hearing it. Before I relaized...when I thought you were really...you killed me, Liv."

"I know, baby, I know," she said stroking the sides of his face with her hands. "But, it's the only way he's gonna stop. He really scared me tonight. You _both_ did." She pulled him toward the bedroom and made him sit on the bed. "I watched the two of you fight, and then he hit _me_, and he was fully convinced that I helped Ken because I had romantic..." she paused and shook her head. "I just needed to stop it, El. I'm so glad that you know what I'm thinking. That you can read me," she said with a chuckle. "I couldn't last one day without you."

Elliot kissed her, running his hands over her, smiling. He pulled away, slowly. "I know the feeling, baby." He watched, dazed, as she got up off the bed and started to undress, but he got up and moved next to her when she walked to the dresser.

"Liv," he said as he put a hand over hers, stopping her from opening the drawer. "Don't bother." He spun her around and kissed her, wrapping her in his strong arms. She moaned into his mouth, tracing the outline of every one of his muscles with her fingertips as they kissed. She helped him shed his clothes. He picked her up and carried her over to the bed, laid her down and crawled on top of her. "I can't lose you, ever," he whispered to her

"You won't. Ever." She kissed him again, but this kiss felt _different_. There was something _new_, surprising. A different _feeling._ A new life. They pulled apart and looked into each other's eyes. "What...was that?" she asked, a smirk threatening to form.

"I don't really know," Elliot said. "You were talking about that kiss, right? It felt..."

Olivia nodded. "Yeah," she whispered. She pulled him down to her again, and felt the same surreal energy. Their kisses held meaning, and depth, it sped up their hearts and cleared their minds and surrounded them with warm, white light. It was almost like magic, really. Elliot deepened the kiss and skimmed his hands over every curve of her body, loving the way she moved beneath him. When he was sure she was wet enough, he teased her juicy center with one finger, smirking against her lips.

"Oh, God, El," she cried into their kiss.

Elliot rested his forehead against hers, and replaced his finger with the tip of his hot, thick, ready member. She looked into his eyes and she saw the love, the true love, the promise to never leave her, and the fear that she _would_ leave him. She knew what seeing Fin kiss her did to him, because she'd _been_ there, every time she watched him with Kathy. "El, I'm never _really_ leaving you," she whispered, feeling him start to stretch her.

"Promise me," he whispered, pushing further inside. "Say it."

"Oh, El," she moaned, "I promise."

* * *

Cragen sighed as Fin waited impatiently for an answer. "I'm sorry, Fin, but there aren't any openings in the Queens SVU. If there were, don't you think..."

"But, there's gotta be somethin' else, _somewhere_," Fin said, huffing. "Anywhere."

"There _isn't_, Fin. What's the hurry to get out of here? You love it here. You're part of this family." Cragen folded his arms.

Fin shook his head. "No, man. I'm tearin' the family apart, Cap."

"Well, even if there were available spots in another unit, I wouldn't sign jack shit, so you do what you have to do to fix whatever mess it is you _think_ you made. Am I clear?" Cragen pointed to the door. "It won't be easy, but it needs to be done."

"Yeah," Fin said. Sighing. "It does." Fin got up and walked out of the office, finally admitting that he'd been wrong and foolish. His heart pounded as he realized the perfect way to make it up to Elliot, and get his Baby-Girl and his best friend back together.

**A/N: What does Fin do? Does it work? Will he find out that Liv and El aren't really over? If you'd like to read more, lemme know with a review! **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Pulse: Unable to keep steady when one is lying, evens out when one knows the truth**

**DISCLAIMER: All SVU characters and rights belong to Dick Wolf. All original story, narrative and dialogue rights belong to TStabler©**

Two hours into her day and Olivia was finding it incredibly difficult to act like she was pissed off at Elliot. She'd been doing it for three days. they would find moments to hide away and steal a kiss or a quick romp, then at home they'd make-love as if it would be the last time they'd ever see each other. Passion, pain, immense pleasure and pure emotion. It was exhilerating and exhausting and it was wearing her out. It was easy to look at Fin with contempt in her eyes, she was really mad at him, but every time she looked at Elliot, her heart thudded and her knees almost buckled. She felt like a thirteen year old with a crush; thank God she knew how to hide it all. She almost brought him coffee several times, and she had the persistent, pesky, desire to pick the fuzz from his wool coat off of his shirt, or straighten out his tie. She needed to touch him, show some sign that she loved him, because even pretending to be mad at him was killing her.

Elliot wasn't having an easy time of it, either. Every time he met Olivia's narrowed eyes, he'd think, only for a split second, that he'd really done something wrong that had hurt her and he'd panic. Then he'd remember why she was looking at him that way. His own anger would fester and he'd shoot Fin a look that would kill him if it could.

Fin had been feeling guilty about the way he'd treated the both of them all week, and he refused to take back his transfer request. He had spoken to Casey Novak, who had spoken to a prominent child-advocacy attorney, on behalf of Elliot. The least Fin could do for Elliot, not that it would change a damn thing, was make sure he got his kids. He was also going to have to try to find a way to talk to Olivia, let her know that he was going to back off, that he could see how much this was hurting her. He was about to try to call her name, softly of course, but she huffed and got out of her chair.

"Where are you going?" Elliot asked, sounding concerned.

Olivia sneered at him. "To the bathroom, Dad," she snapped, instantly regretting it.

"Liv, come on," he said, dropping his eyelids. He had no problem giving the impression he was in a great deal of pain. He was. It wasn't fake anymore. "Can we just…"

"No," she said, quietly, as she walked passed him and out of the bullpen.

Cragen folded his arms and stared down at Elliot. "If you want to keep your job, you'll go after her. You two have a shitload of work to do and it won't get done if you're at each other's throats. We went through this shit weeks ago and I almost split you two up, don't make me follow through on that threat."

Elliot glanced at Fin, who bowed his head apologetically, then got out of his seat and sheepishly walked out of the bullpen. He walked down the hall, quickly, his heart pounding, and he knocked on the ladies room door. "Liv," he said, quietly.

"El," she said, knowing full well it was him.

He smirked. "You alone in there?" he asked in a husky whisper.

"Think about that for a second," she said, sarcastically. She was the only female detective in the squad, and all the other women on the floor used the bathroom on the far end. Elliot chuckled as he pushed the door open. "I'm really getting tired of this shit, baby," he complained as he wrapped his arms around her. "Cragen's threatening to split us up, again, if we don't start getting along, so we should try to act, ya know, mildly civil toward each other."

Olivia kissed him, the sweet and chaste peck on the lips quickly growing heated and passionate, she pulled a way, panting. "Okay," she said when she finally backed up. "We can be civil."

"Good," Elliot said. "Now, come here and kiss me." He smirked, waiting for her to take the step forward and give him the satisfaction. When she didn't he pouted. "Liv," he said in a teasing manner, "Don't make me come over there."

Olivia raised her eyebrow and smirked. "What are you gonna do to me, tough guy?" She narrowed her eyes. "You know you look real macho trying to seduce me in the very pink women's' bathroom."

"Please," he said with a scoff. "Like it hasn't worked every day this week."

"Oh, it worked," Olivia said, laughing. "It doesn't mean you looked macho doing it." She crooked her finger at him, he smiled and rolled his eyes as he backed her up into the corner and he kissed her, laughing all the while. "God, Liv, I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"What, El? The sneaking around? The lying?" she asked, between ragged breaths as he unbuttoned her top and peppered her collarbone and chest with kisses.

Elliot chuckled as he slid the material off of her shoulders. "No, baby. Sex in here. Every afternoon, Munch sniffs me and tells me how absolutely powder-fresh I smell," he said as he fumbled with the complicated clasp on Olivia's pants. She helped him with it and said, "That's nothing. He smells _me_ and tells me that I smell like _you_." They shared a laugh as Elliot playfully bit and tickled Olivia. Being together, no matter where, no matter when, was the happiest they had ever been, and they were determined to stay that way.

After they made themselves presentable and put on their somber faces, they strolled back into the bullpen, sullen, but "getting along." They were surprised to see Casey standing in the middle of the squadroom.

"Hey, Case," Olivia said, slightly panicky. Casey was Olivia's best friend. She knew everything. What the hell was she doing here? Did they have a new case?

"Afternoon, Benson," Casey said cheerfully, "And Stabler. Just the man I wanted to see. I have something for you." She pulled out a think manila envelope and handed it to him. "Kathy and her lawyer agreed to the terms, and if you do, then all you need to do is sign the papers. No hearing, no trial. The kids would rather be with you anyway."

Elliot's heart started to pound. "What are you talking about?" He opened the envelope and gasped. "How the hell did you…Casey did you…" he paused then he looked up at Olivia. "Liv?"

"Don't look at me!" Olivia cried.

Casey grinned. "The kids called and left a heartfelt message on my boss's machine. Then they showed up in my office with their Uncle Fin, begging for me to take them away from their deranged lunatic of a mother. So I did," the redheaded attorney said. "Well, for the most part. Kathy gets them on weekends unless there's something special you need them for, and that has to be arranged two weeks in advance. It's all right…"

"Did you say Fin brought them to see you?" Elliot asked, interrupting and sending a sidelong glance at Fin, who smiled guiltily.

"Yeah. I did. Fin made a great case for you. His character witness statement was what made the judge's decision for him. You've got a good friend in him," Casey said, sending a soft glance toward Fin. She noticed that he was staring at Olivia. Fin observed that Olivia was staring at Elliot, who was staring down at his papers. No eyes had met, but thousands of emotions had been read and felt. Two hearts broke and two were repaired.

"Fin, you did this?" Elliot asked, holding up the stack that he'd just signed.

Fin nodded. "Yeah, man. My way of sayin' I'm sorry."

Elliot handed the papers back to Casey, who took another look at Fin and then left, promising to call Olivia later. Elliot walked over to Fin's desk and cleared his throat. "Thank you, Fin. You…you don't know what…"

"Yeah, I do, Elliot." Fin stood up and slapped him on the shoulder. "I gave you back your kids, just like Olivia gave me back mine. I know what that meant to me, but I had a shitty way of showin' my gratitude. I know it's gonna take a while, but, I'd like to put this whole mess behind us and try to…" he stopped and jerked his head a bit, telling Elliot he couldn't quite get the words out.

"Yeah," Elliot said. "Me, too."

"Oh," Fin added, "Go get the pie, man, I promise I will not stand in front of the fridge anymore." With that, Fin looked at Olivia, a sort of happy sadness in his eyes, and he went back to his desk, relieved.

Elliot looked at her, then. She was smiling, her eyes shining. Olivia wanted to leap into Elliot's arms, it was written on her face. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her at that moment, celebrate the fact that he had the one thing that he was afraid he had truly lost, his kids. "So, uh, I'm supposed to pick up my kids tomorrow night," he said to her.

"That soon, huh?" she said, trying to sound less excited than she was, owing to the fact that Munch and Cragen were still in the room.

Elliot nodded. "You wouldn't…um, do you wanna come with me?"

Olivia's heart thumped rapidly. "Seriously?" she asked. She knew this would mean telling the kids, and she was sure they would freak out. "Why do you want me to?"

"They're teenagers. They come with a lot of baggage, figuratively and literally. I'm gonna need your help and support. And," he paused, took a deep breath, and tried to slow his racing heart. "I want to take them out. I told them all about that amazing pie. I think they're gonna love the pie. You need to be there, Liv."

Munch walked over, handing them each a cup of coffee. "Stabler, we all know your kids adore Olivia, and if you don't stop referring to her as 'the pie' she is going to kick your ass from here to Chinatown."

Elliot and Olivia looked like two deer caught in headlights as they looked at Munch, who smirked, then at Cragen, who was chuckling to himself. "At least the two of you aren't fighting anymore," the captain said. He pointed a finger at them and warned, "I don't wanna hear about it, I don't wanna know about it, I don't wanna see it. When I get invited to the wedding, then I'll stick Benson with Fin. Until then, you two keep it out of the dame precinct. And out of the fucking bathroom! You have a trial you should be prepping for, don't you?"

Olivia smirked as her commanding officer practically parroted the same thing she had said to Elliot after they kissed for the first time. It seemed, for now at least, that they're hearts could finally find a slow, steady rhythm. They'd found a normalcy, an average pulse, that had, for the moment, freed them from the lying, hiding and hurting they'd been doing for weeks. Olivia took another look at Elliot as she sat down at her desk to open her files. She knew, from experience and instinct, that his heart was beating to the same, steady, powerful beat as hers and there was absolutely nothing that would ever change that. But, there were a few things were certainly going to try.

**A/N: This could be the end! But it won't be if you'd like to read more. I'm happy with this ending though. It's up to you and your reviews! **


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